In Ocean Travel and Cruising: A Cultural Analysis, noted author Arthur Asa Berger turns his critical eye to the phenomenon of ocean cruising. This academically solid yet reader-friendly book brings a multidisciplinary cultural studies approach to the subject, examining ocean cruising from economic, semiotic, sociological, psychoanalytic, and marketing perspectives, and offering insights not provided by the more traditional sociological approaches to the subject. You'll explore cruise demographics, the relationship between cruising and gender, the sociology of dining on cruise ships, hedonism and pleasure seeking, the compulsion to cruise, consolidation in the industry, the exploitation of workers on cruise ships, and a great deal more.
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• Preface: The Joke Is on Me!
  
• Acknowledgments
  
• Chapter 1. The Economics of Cruising
  
• Cruising to Alaska: A Case Study
  
• Cruises Compared to Land Based Vacations
  
• Other Ways Cruise Lines Make Money
  
• Cruise Categories
  
• Consolidation of the Cruise Industry
  
• Exploitation of Workers on Cruise Ships?
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 2. Signs at Sea: The Semiotics of Cruising
  
• A Primer on Semiotics
  
• The Cruise Ship As a Sign System
  
• Cruises and Pilgrimages
  
• Names of Cruise Lines and the Perceived Elitism of the Cruise Experience
  
• Taking Photographs and Using Video Cameras
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 3. Sociological Analysis of Cruising
  
• Cruise Demographics
  
• Gender and Cruising
  
• Carnivalization Theory and Cruising
  
• The Sociology of Dining
  
• Time Budgets and the Busy Life at Sea
  
• New Trends in Cruising
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 4. A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Cruising
  
• The Compulsion to Cruise
  
• Sea and Psyche
  
• The Paradise Myth and Cruises
  
• Cruise Liners As Floating Utopias
  
• Hedonism and Pleasure Seeking
  
• Cruise Taking As Regression in the Service of the Ego
  
• The Gourmet/Gourmand Problem
  
• Unconditional Love
  
• The Agony of the Choice
  
• Escaping the Boredom of Everyday Life
  
• Behind the Facade: Daily Life of Crew Members
  
• The Ship As a Labyrinth: A Speculative Theory
  
• The Cruise Travel Agent As Fairy Godmother
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 5. Selling Smooth Sailing: Advertising and Marketing Cruises
  
• Interpreting Advertisements
  
• What Can Be Analyzed in a Print Advertisement?
  
• Cruise Advertising in the August 2002 Travel + Leisure Magazine
  
• Commonalties in These Cruise Advertisements
  
• Two Cruise Line Brochure (Catalog) Covers
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 6. Cruising (on) the Internet
  
• Cruising the Internet for Cruises
  
• Categories of Cruise-Related Web Sites
  
• Internet Cruise-Only Travel Agencies
  
• Cruise Line Web Sites
  
• Conclusion
  
• Chapter 7. Notes from a Cruise Journal
  
• References
  
• Index