Romancing the Caribbean Sea: Size, Mobility and Sustainability in Cruise Ship Romance Fiction

Abstract Popular romance novels taking place on Caribbean cruise ships work through the two main elements characterizing the cruise industry: ever bigger ships and their movement across the Caribbean sea’s paradise locations. Size and mobility matter for romances such as Caribbean Cruising, Santa Cruise and Onboard for Love , which offer a unique vista to the Caribbean seascape from the deck and the cabin of the luxury cruise liner sailing usually from the US to places like the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico and St Kitts. Popular romance is produced for readers’ escapist pleasure needs, not to preach or politicize. But it is clear, that they must contain elements that readers want from their books, such as value consistency. Beyond the paradise discourse lies the industry’s sustainability dilemma: factors like climate change and overtourism force sustainability front and centre. There is every reason to believe that these values might also seep into romance literature, as the texts suggest that the environment matters for romance. This scrutiny into the conjuncture of the literary and cruise industries, through a consideration of cultural sustainability, suggests multimodal and mobile readers with their value-needs could ultimately influence industries across the board for more sustainable literary futures.