The Love Boat. The Cruise as a Heterotopia

Abstract

On a cruise, spatial coordinates are suspended (orientation with respect to the land and to the labyrinthine plan of the ship is lost), as well as the temporal dimension (time is marked by the palimpsest of daily activities rather than by clocks), and the actor’s characteristics (with the alteration of some of the identity traits of the subjects inv olved). The passenger experiences on the voyage an “o ther self, one that in some ways cannot be revealed within everyday life. And the boat becomes the place in which a series of paradoxes are realised: the realm of the freedom, but also a form of holiday slavery in which everything is capillarily foreseen beforehand; a space in which apparent luxury is made evident, but also latent poverty; an emblem of great relaxation, but also of hyper activity. The contribution dwells on the analysis of cruise tourism following as a line of interpretation that of the ship as a heterotopia.