The Economy of Pleasure
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RUNNING HEAD: Resorts and the Sinister Side of Pleasure
Resorts as Imagined Communities: The Sinister Side of the Economy of Pleasure
Nesli Diba Kaya (996114244)
ANTB20 S: Globalization, Politics and Culture
Tutorial #0005
Prof. G. Daswani
The Economy of Pleasure
2
Resorts as Imagined Communities: The Sinister Side of the Economy of Pleasure
Thanks to the many trends under the umbrella term globalization, the convenience of a
vacation has never been cheaper, easier to book and more widely available than now where
with the click of a button comes the promise of “sun, sex and sand” (Gregory, 2007). As a result
of this accessibility a large majority of countries boasting the image associated with this
promise have opened up, to the tourism economy. The aim of this paper is to see resorts as
manifestations of an imagined community of tourists where the common expression is the
pursuit of pleasure. This paper will explore the idea of the imagined community, the economy
of pleasure and use the film “Heading South” (2005) and the book The Devil Behind the Mirror
(Gregory, 2007) to illustrate the sinister side of this imagined community.
In deconstructing the imagined community (IC), the concept of imagination and
community needs to be delved into. In this instance the imagined refers to “forming a mental
image of something not actually present to the senses and to think, believe or fancy”
(Dictionary.com, 2012) and community is defined as “a group sharing common characteristics
or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society
within which it exists” (Dictionary.com, 2012). Therefore, a feature of what can be concieved of
as an IC is a community based on an idea, interest or value that is intangible. Further, that any
kind of IC is “distinguished by the style in which they are imagined” (Anderson, 1991). Since IC
are based on something intangible, they are not bound spatially and have a translocal essence.
Further evidence of this understanding of IC comes from the first use of the term to describe
the translocal nature of nationalism outside the borders of a nation (Daswani, 2012).