Arthur Asa Berger

This book builds on Le Bon’s classic, The Crowd, to evaluate the role of crowds in American culture, society, and politics. It offers a detailed description of Le Bon’s book along with material on Freud’s book on group psychology, crowds and cults, the semiotics of crowds, American national character and crowds, the 1/6 attackon the Capitol, and crowds and COVID-19.

Sports Semiotics applies semiotics (and other disciplines, secondarily) to analyse the social, cultural, economic and psychological significance of sports. It includes a primer on semiotic theory, sections on the analysis of wrestling by Roland Barthes in his book Mythologies, as well as sections on football and the sacred, the Super Bowl, and the semiotics of televised baseball.

Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors: A Psycho-Semiotic Analysis uses semiotics along psychoanalytic to offer a granular analysis of one of Shakespeare’s funniest and most interesting comedies. It is distinctive in that it offers a discussion of the basic techniques found incomic literature of all kinds and applies these techniques to events in the play. It also offers a discussion of the basic theories of humor and a syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis of the play.

This introductory textbook familiarizes students with ideas of key thinkers and perspectives related to postmodern thought and everyday life. The book is unique in that it offers selections from key passages of works of important thinkers as well as from some of the author's own publications that serve as examples of how to interpret various aspects of culture. The book draws in readers with its engaging and conversational style and use of cases, illustrations and photographs, including fun discussions on everyday life under pandemic restrictions. This is a must read for students taking courses in sociology, cultural anthropology, culture and media studies, linguistics, social philosophy, and for specific courses on postmodernism.

Written in an accessible style, with many photographs of important tourist sites and drawings by the author, Smooth Sailing provides an ethnographically informed introduction to the nature of tourism and an important aspect of tourism, ocean cruising. The book discusses topics such as the nature of tourism, different kinds of tourists, the role that myths play in tourism, gratifications from tourism, and travel as a means of personal transformation. It also deals with ocean cruising and considers the notion that cruises are boring, social class and cruising, cruising and addiction, and cruising and the psyche.

Trump’s Followers: A Socio-Semiotic Analysis uses semiotic theory, psychoanalytic theory, and sociological theory to analyze Donald Trump’s followers and to understand what motivates them and explain why they behave the way they do when at his rallies. It makes use of ideas from Gustave Le Bon’s classic The Crowd, ideas from Freud about the psyche and social groups, and works by many other important scholars and writers. The book is written in an accessible style and is illustrated with many drawings by the author.

It is the age-old saying that "laughter is the best medicine". Scientific research has substantiated the claim made by this proverb by verifying the positive effects it has on both our mind and body, but what is it about a good joke, comic, or sitcom that makes us laugh?Humor, Psyche and Society is a compilation of Berger's previously published articles and new chapters on the nature of humour, its importance for our psyches, and its social and political significance. Written in an accessible style, it uses semiotics, psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory, as well as other theories of humour to explore the multifaceted nature of humour, various styles of jokes and sitcoms. Using Berger's typology of forty-five techniques found in all forms of humour, developed to explain what makes us laugh, this book analyses a variety of humorous texts. Balancing theory, entertaining jokes and other humorous texts, as well as the author's illustrations, the chapters in this book delve into a diverse range of topics such as humour and the creative process, humour and health, and visual humour; along with an examination of the sitcoms Frasier and Cheers; and finally, the exploration of jokes including Jewish jokes, and jokes on Russia and Communism, and Trump. This book will be of particular interest to university students studying courses in humour, comedy, popular culture, applied semiotics, American politics and culture, and cultural studies. Due to the accessible nature of this book, the general public may find it to be both a fascinating and entertaining read.

The fifth edition of this approachable text draws on both academic and applied perspectives to offer a lively critique of contemporary advertising’s effects on American character and culture.Berger explains how advertising works by employing a psycho-cultural approach, encouraging readers to think about advertisements and commercials in more analytical and profound ways. Among the topics he addresses are the role of brands, the problem of self-alienation, and how both relate to consumption. Berger also considers the Values and Lifestyle (VALS) and Claritas typologies in marketing. Distinctive chapters examine specific advertisements and commercials from multiple perspectives, including semiotic, psychoanalytic, sociological, Marxist, mythic, and feminist analysis. Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture provides an accessible overview of advertising in the United States, spanning issues as diverse as sexuality, politics, market research, consumer culture, and more; helping readers understand the role that advertising has played, and continues to play, in all our lives.

The sixth edition of this approachable text draws on both academic and applied perspectives to offer a lively critique of contemporary advertising’s effects on American character and culture.Berger explains how advertising works by employing a psycho-cultural approach, encouraging readers to think about advertisements and commercials in more analytical and profound ways. Among the topics he addresses are the role of brands, the problem of self-alienation, and how both relate to consumption. Berger also considers the Values and Lifestyle (VALS) and Claritas typologies in marketing. Distinctive chapters examine specific advertisements and commercials from multiple perspectives, including semiotic, psychoanalytic, sociological, Marxist, mythic, and feminist analysis. Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture provides an accessible overview of advertising in the United States, spanning issues as diverse as sexuality, politics, market research, consumer culture, and more; helping readers understand the role that advertising has played, and continues to play, in all our lives.

Shopper’s Paradise: Retail Stores and American Consumer Culture deals with the cultural, social and economic impact of different kinds of retail stores on American society. It has sections on some of the most important retail genres, such as Internet stores (Amazon.com), department stores (Neiman Marcus), coffee shops (Starbucks), big-box stores (Walmart, Costco) and a number of other kinds of stores such as dollar stores, malls, and farmers markets. It also has a discussion of consumer cultures. The subtext in the publication is the notion that shopping is connected with a desire to return to paradise, from which we were excluded due to Adam and Eve’s behavior in the Garden of Eden. Thus, the term “paradise” has two meanings. It is written in an accessible style and makes use of material from a variety of journalists and scholars who write about the retail industry and consumer cultures.

Three Tropes on Trump: A Textbook on Applied Marxism, Semiotics, and Psychoanalysis uses the term "trope" in an unusual way—not as an expression in a figurative sense but as a form or method of analysis. This book uses Marxist theory, semiotic theory, and psychoanalytic theory in an attempt to understand what we might call the Trump phenomenon and the Trump style. Each chapter features a primer on its methodology, and it applies concepts from these theories to Trump’s candidacy and presidency, covering everything from his hair style, his use of spectacle, his use of insults, his comedic aspects, his personality, and his many psychological problems to help make sense of Trump and his relationship to his base and to the American public.

This book, written in an accessible style with numerous illustrations and with drawings by the author, discusses what brands are and the role brands play in American society and consumer cultures, in general. The book uses a cultural studies approach and draws upon concepts and theories from semiotics, psychoanalytic theory, sociological theory, discourse theory, and other related fields. It also quotes from a number of important thinkers whose ideas offer insights into various aspects of brands. Brands has chapters on topics such as what brands are, their role in society, brands and the psyche, brands and history, language and brands, the marketing of brands, brands and logos, the branded self, San Francisco and Japan as brands, brand sacrality, multi-modal discourse analysis and brands, and competition among brands.

Perspectives on Everyday Life: A Cross Disciplinary Cultural Analysis makes the argument for studying everyday life through a combination of introductory theoretical approaches and a grouping of applications to specific aspects of American culture. The first part of the book addresses the idea of everyday life as considered by distinguished thinkers who have written books about everyday life, such as Sigmund Freud, Fernand Braudel, Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, and others. The second part of the book uses theories dealt with in the first part of the book to explore objects—such as suitcases, alarm clocks, milk, pacifiers, pressure cookers, smart speakers, and super-glue—and their part in the various rituals of everyday life in America, revealing their hidden meanings.