Self Help And Popular Religion In Modern American Culture

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Self-Help and Popular Religion in Modern American Culture

Author : Roy M. Anker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313018219
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Self-Help and Popular Religion in Modern American Culture by : Roy M. Anker

Download or read book Self-Help and Popular Religion in Modern American Culture written by Roy M. Anker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-11-30 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second of two volumes on the relationship between popular religion and the self-help tradition in American culture, this book continues chronologically where the first left off. As with the first volume, this work focuses on the intersection of American history and popular religion and is intended as an introductory interpretive guide to major self-help figures and movements with origins in popular religious movements. This volume spans from Romanticism, the Gilded Age, and the history of Christian Science, with discussions of Mary Baker Patterson, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and Mary Baker Eddy, through Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. Peale and Schuller, with the exception of Evangelist Billy Graham, constitute the public face of mainstream American Protestantism and bring this two-volume study to its conclusion in the second half of the 20th century. This reference will serve as a valuable research tool for American religion and popular culture scholars. Together with the first volume, Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture, these two meticulously researched volumes clearly define and present the broad scope of the self-help tradition as it pervades American culture and as it developed and was influenced by popular religion. An extensive bibliography is included.

Spiritual, but not Religious

Author : Robert C. Fuller
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780198033547
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (335 download)

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Book Synopsis Spiritual, but not Religious by : Robert C. Fuller

Download or read book Spiritual, but not Religious written by Robert C. Fuller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-12-20 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 40% of all Americans have no connection with organized religion. Yet many of these people, even though they might never step inside a house of worship, live profoundly spiritual lives. But what is the nature and value of unchurched spirituality in America? Is it a recent phenomenon, a New Age fad that will soon fade, or a long-standing and essential aspect of the American experience? In Spiritual But Not Religious, Robert Fuller offers fascinating answers to these questions. He shows that alternative spiritual practices have a long and rich history in America, dating back to the colonial period, when church membership rarely exceeded 17% and interest in astrology, numerology, magic, and witchcraft ran high. Fuller traces such unchurched traditions into the mid-nineteenth century, when Americans responded enthusiastically to new philosophies such as Swedenborgianism, Transcendentalism, and mesmerism, right up to the current interest in meditation, channeling, divination, and a host of other unconventional spiritual practices. Throughout, Fuller argues that far from the flighty and narcissistic dilettantes they are often made out to be, unchurched spiritual seekers embrace a mature and dynamic set of basic beliefs. They focus on inner sources of spirituality and on this world rather than the afterlife; they believe in the accessibility of God and in the mind's untapped powers; they see a fundamental unity between science and religion and an equality between genders and races; and they are more willing to test their beliefs and change them when they prove untenable. Timely, sweeping in its scope, and informed by a clear historical understanding, Spiritual But Not Religious offers fresh perspective on the growing numbers of Americans who find their spirituality outside the church.

The Self-Help Compulsion

Author : Beth Blum
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231551088
Total Pages : 507 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Self-Help Compulsion by : Beth Blum

Download or read book The Self-Help Compulsion written by Beth Blum and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel Beckett as a guru for business executives? James Joyce as a guide to living a good life? The notion of notoriously experimental authors sharing a shelf with self-help books might seem far-fetched, yet a hidden history of rivalry, influence, and imitation links these two worlds. In The Self-Help Compulsion, Beth Blum reveals the profound entanglement of modern literature and commercial advice from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Blum explores popular reading practices in which people turn to literature in search of practical advice alongside modern writers’ rebukes of such instrumental purposes. As literary authors positioned themselves in opposition to people like Samuel Smiles and Dale Carnegie, readers turned to self-help for the promises of mobility, agency, and practical use that serious literature was reluctant to supply. Blum unearths a series of unlikely cases of the love-hate relationship between serious fiction and commercial advice, from Gustave Flaubert’s mockery of early DIY culture to Dear Abby’s cutting diagnoses of Nathanael West and from Virginia Woolf’s ambivalent polemics against self-improvement to the ways that contemporary global authors such as Mohsin Hamid and Tash Aw explicitly draw on the self-help genre. She also traces the self-help industry’s tendency to popularize, quote, and adapt literary wisdom and considers what it might have to teach today’s university. Offering a new history of self-help’s origins, appeal, and cultural and literary import around the world, this book reveals that self-help’s most valuable secrets are not about getting rich or winning friends but about how and why people read.

The Automobile in American History and Culture

Author : Michael L. Berger
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313016062
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Automobile in American History and Culture by : Michael L. Berger

Download or read book The Automobile in American History and Culture written by Michael L. Berger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-07-30 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive reference guide reviews the literature concerning the impact of the automobile on American social, economic, and political history. Covering the complete history of the automobile to date, twelve chapters of bibliographic essays describe the important works in a series of related topics and provide broad thematic contexts. This work includes general histories of the automobile, the industry it spawned and labor-management relations, as well as biographies of famous automotive personalities. Focusing on books concerned with various social aspects, chapters discuss such issues as the car's influence on family life, youth, women, the elderly, minorities, literature, and leisure and recreation. Berger has also included works that investigate the government's role in aiding and regulating the automobile, with sections on roads and highways, safety, and pollution. The guide concludes with an overview of reference works and periodicals in the field and a description of selected research collections. The Automobile in American History and Culture provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure. Popular culture scholars and enthusiasts involved in automotive research will appreciate the extensive scope of this reference. Cross-referenced throughout, it will serve as a valuable research tool.

Vocation and the Politics of Work

Author : Jeffrey Scholes
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0739178903
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Vocation and the Politics of Work by : Jeffrey Scholes

Download or read book Vocation and the Politics of Work written by Jeffrey Scholes and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys the theological and cultural appropriations of the Protestant concept of vocation in order to argue for a vocation that has political traction in modern workplaces. It uniquely brings together insights from recent works in political theology and consumer culture studies along with analyses of self-help literature to accomplish this task.

Sports

Author : Donald L. Deardorff
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313095469
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Sports by : Donald L. Deardorff

Download or read book Sports written by Donald L. Deardorff and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2000-09-30 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide to the available literature on sports in American culture during the last two decades of the 20th century is a companion to Jack Higg's Sports: A Reference Guide (Greenwood, 1982). The types of individual or team sports included in this volume include those that are viewed as physical contests engaged in for physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological fulfillment. With a focus on books alone, chapters review the available literature regarding sports and each concludes with a bibliography. Academic journals likely to contain articles on the topics discussed are listed at the end of each chapter. Twelve chapters discuss sports and American history, business and law, education, ethnicity and race, gender, literature, philosophy and religion, popular culture, psychology, science and technology, sociology and world history. This reference and guide to further research will appeal to scholars of popular culture and sports. An index and two appendixes are included, one listing important dates in American sports from 1980 through 2000 and one listing sports halls of fame, museums, periodicals, and websites.

Prayer

Author : Philip Zaleski
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780618773602
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (736 download)

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Book Synopsis Prayer by : Philip Zaleski

Download or read book Prayer written by Philip Zaleski and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006-10 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paying homage to prayer traditions from around the world and throughout history, this celebration of prayer covers everything from Pentacoastalist revivals to the sacred pipe to the Catholic rosary.

The Eisenhower Years

Author : Michael S. Mayer
Publisher : Infobase Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1438119089
Total Pages : 1025 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis The Eisenhower Years by : Michael S. Mayer

Download or read book The Eisenhower Years written by Michael S. Mayer and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 1025 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 34th U.S. president to hold office, Dwight D. Eisenhower won America over with his irresistible I like Ike slogan. Bringing to the presidency his prestige as a commanding general during World War II, he worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the cold war. Pursuing the moderate policies of Modern Republicanism, he left a legacy of a stronger and more powerful nation. From his crucial role in support of Brown v. Board of Education to the National Defense Education Act, The Eisenhower Years provides a well-balanced study of these politically charged years. Biographical entries on key figures of the Eisenhower era, such as Allen W. Dulles, Joseph R. McCarthy, and Rosa Parks, combine with speeches such as the Military Industrial Complex speech, the Open Skies proposal, the disturbance at Little Rock address, Eisenhower Doctrine, and his speech after the Soviet launch of Sputnik to give an in-depth look at the executive actions of this administration.

The Rise of the Global South

Author : Elijah Jong Fil Kim
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1610979702
Total Pages : 524 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of the Global South by : Elijah Jong Fil Kim

Download or read book The Rise of the Global South written by Elijah Jong Fil Kim and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-04-06 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Christianity has been experiencing an unprecedented historical transition from the West to the non-Western world. The leadership of global Christianity has taken on a new face since the twentieth century. Christendom in Europe and America has experienced a great decline while there has been a rise in Majority World Christianity. Churches in the Global South have given their voices to global Christianity through their leadership, world mission movements, and theology. The phenomenal church growth has risen from the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement. Pentecostalism has become the dominant force in global Christianity today. The Rise of the Global South examines the significance this shift has had on global Christianity by going through the history of Christianity in the West and the causes of the shift.

The Distance Cure

Author : Hannah Zeavin
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262365782
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis The Distance Cure by : Hannah Zeavin

Download or read book The Distance Cure written by Hannah Zeavin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychotherapy across distance and time, from Freud’s treatments by mail to crisis hotlines, radio call-ins, chatbots, and Zoom sessions. Therapy has long understood itself as taking place in a room, with two (or more) people engaged in person-to-person conversation. And yet, starting with Freud’s treatments by mail, psychotherapy has operated through multiple communication technologies and media. These have included advice columns, radio broadcasts, crisis hotlines, video, personal computers, and mobile phones; the therapists (broadly defined) can be professional or untrained, strangers or chatbots. In The Distance Cure, Hannah Zeavin proposes a reconfiguration of the traditional therapeutic dyad of therapist and patient as a triad: therapist, patient, and communication technology. Zeavin tracks the history of teletherapy (understood as a therapeutic interaction over distance) and its metamorphosis from a model of cure to one of contingent help. She describes its initial use in ongoing care, its role in crisis intervention and symptom management, and our pandemic-mandated reliance on regular Zoom sessions. Her account of the “distanced intimacy” of the therapeutic relationship offers a powerful rejoinder to the notion that contact across distance (or screens) is always less useful, or useless, to the person seeking therapeutic treatment or connection. At the same time, these modes of care can quickly become a backdoor for surveillance and disrupt ethical standards important to the therapeutic relationship. The history of the conventional therapeutic scenario cannot be told in isolation from its shadow form, teletherapy. Therapy, Zeavin tells us, was never just a “talking cure”; it has always been a communication cure.

America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem

Author : Owen Davies
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191625140
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem by : Owen Davies

Download or read book America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem written by Owen Davies and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-02-21 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America Bewitched is the first major history of witchcraft in America - from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the present day. The infamous Salem trials are etched into the consciousness of modern America, the human toll a reminder of the dangers of intolerance and persecution. The refrain Remember Salem! was invoked frequently over the ensuing centuries. As time passed, the trials became a milepost measuring the distance America had progressed from its colonial past, its victims now the righteous and their persecutors the shamed. Yet the story of witchcraft did not end as the American Enlightenment dawned - a new,long, and chilling chapter was about to begin.Witchcraft after Salem was not just a story of fire-side tales, legends, and superstitions: it continued to be a matter of life and death, souring the American dream for many. We know of more people killed as witches between 1692 and the 1950s than were executed before it. Witches were part of the story of the decimation of the Native Americans, the experience of slavery and emancipation, and the immigrant experience; they were embedded in the religious and social history of the country. Yetthe history of American witchcraft between the eighteenth and the twentieth century also tells a less traumatic story, one that shows how different cultures interacted and shaped each others languages and beliefs. This is therefore much more than the tale of one persecuted community: it opens a fascinating window on the fears, prejudices, hopes, and dreams of the American people as their country rose from colony to superpower.

The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes

Author : Timothy H. Sherwood
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739174312
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes by : Timothy H. Sherwood

Download or read book The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes written by Timothy H. Sherwood and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham were America’s most popular religious leaders during the mid-twentieth century period known as the golden years of the Age of Extremes. It was part of an era that encompassed polemic contrasts of good and evil on the world stage in political philosophies and international relations. The 1950s and early 1960s, in particular, were years of high anxiety, competing ideologies, and hero/villain mania in America. Sheen was the voice of reason who spoke against those conflicting ideologies which were hostile to religious faith and democracy; Peale preached the gospel of reassurance, self-assurance, and success despite ominous global threats; and Graham was the heroic model of faith whose message of conversion provided Americans an identity and direction opposite to atheistic communism. This study looks at how and why their rhetorical leadership, both separately and together, contributed to the climate of an extreme era and influenced a national religious revival.

Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society

Author : Jayeel Cornelio
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317295005
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society by : Jayeel Cornelio

Download or read book Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society written by Jayeel Cornelio and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like any other subject, the study of religion is a child of its time. Shaped and forged over the course of the twentieth century, it has reflected the interests and political situation of the world at the time. As the twenty-first century unfolds, it is undergoing a major transition along with religion itself. This volume showcases new work and new approaches to religion which work across boundaries of religious tradition, academic discipline and region. The influence of globalizing processes has been evident in social and cultural networking by way of new media like the internet, in the extensive power of global capitalism and in the increasing influence of international bodies and legal instruments. Religion has been changing and adapting too. This handbook offers fresh insights on the dynamic reality of religion in global societies today by underscoring transformations in eight key areas: Market and Branding; Contemporary Ethics and Virtues; Intimate Identities; Transnational Movements; Diasporic Communities; Responses to Diversity; National Tensions; and Reflections on ‘Religion’. These themes demonstrate the handbook’s new topics and approaches that move beyond existing agendas. Bringing together scholars of all ages and stages of career from around the world, the handbook showcases the dynamism of religion in global societies. It is an accessible introduction to new ways of approaching the study of religion practically, theoretically and geographically.

Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America

Author : Charles L. Cohen
Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN 13 : 0299225739
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America by : Charles L. Cohen

Download or read book Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America written by Charles L. Cohen and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2008-05-29 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mingling God and Mammon, piety and polemics, and prescriptions for this world and the next, modern Americans have created a culture of print that is vibrantly religious. From America’s beginnings, the printed word has played a central role in articulating, propagating, defending, critiquing, and sometimes attacking religious belief. In the last two centuries the United States has become both the leading producer and consumer of print and one of the most identifiably religious nations on earth. Print in every form has helped religious groups come to grips with modernity as they construct their identities. In turn, publishers have profited by swelling their lists with spiritual advice books and scriptures formatted so as to attract every conceivable niche market. Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America explores how a variety of print media—religious tracts, newsletters, cartoons, pamphlets, self-help books, mass-market paperbacks, and editions of the Bible from the King James Version to contemporary “Bible-zines”—have shaped and been shaped by experiences of faith since the Civil War. Edited by Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, whose comprehensive historical essays provide a broad overview to the topic, this book is the first on the history of religious print culture in modern America and a well-timed entry into the increasingly prominent contemporary debate over the role of religion in American public life. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for Regional Special Interests, selected by the Public Library Association

American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle

Author : Kirsten MacLeod
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
ISBN 13 : 1442643161
Total Pages : 508 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (426 download)

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Book Synopsis American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle by : Kirsten MacLeod

Download or read book American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle written by Kirsten MacLeod and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle, Kirsten MacLeod examines the rise of a new print media form - the little magazine - and its relationship to the transformation of American cultural life at the turn of the twentieth century. Though the little magazine has long been regarded as the preserve of modernist avant-gardes and elite artistic coteries, for whom it served as a form of resistance to mass media, MacLeod's detailed study of its origins paints a different picture. Combining cultural, textual, literary, and media studies criticism, MacLeod demonstrates how the little magazine was deeply connected to the artistic, social, political, and cultural interests of a rising professional-managerial class. She offers a richly contextualized analysis of the little magazine's position in the broader media landscape: namely, its relationship to old and new media, including pre-industrial print forms, newspapers, mass-market magazines, fine press books, and posters. MacLeod's study challenges conventional understandings of the little magazine as a genre and emphasizes the power of "little" media in a mass-market context.

Televangelism and American Culture

Author : Quentin J. Schultze
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1592443362
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (924 download)

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Book Synopsis Televangelism and American Culture by : Quentin J. Schultze

Download or read book Televangelism and American Culture written by Quentin J. Schultze and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2003-09-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not just another trashing of televangelism. . . . Schultze's sensitive critique of present patterns of religious programming is meant to promote a more responsible Christian use of the television medium. His book deserves to be read by all who care deeply about the obedient proclamation of the gospel in contemporary culture. Richard Mouw The problems [Schultze] addresses are more profound than sexual or financial scandals. They are rather problems of idolatry (substituting a charismatic image on the screen of God), heresy (defining the faith by what it will do for me), and ecclesiastical suicide (transforming churches into audiences). Amazingly, after such an indictment, Schultze holds out hope for the Christian use of television. Mark Noll The most intelligent report on televangelism that I have read and, I suspect, the best ever. . . . Clearly the work of a smart student, a discerning watcher and fair critic of the media, but best of all, a careful Christian mind. Lewis Smedes Schultze's concluding chapter should be required reading for every Christian. It provides solid biblical guidelines for calling religious broadcasters to accountability, challenges individual Christians as well as the Christian media to be more critical and selective in their support of religious broadcasters, and calls Christian educators to address the implications of living in the television age. Steve Rabey ('Christianity Today') A disturbing book, useful both for [the author's] cultural and Christian critique, and for his citation of a wide range of evidence. Lloyd Averill ('The Christian Century')

Reading as Therapy

Author : Timothy Aubry
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1587299569
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis Reading as Therapy by : Timothy Aubry

Download or read book Reading as Therapy written by Timothy Aubry and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2006-05-01 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do Americans read contemporary fiction? This question seems simple, but is it? Do Americans read for the purpose of aesthetic appreciation? To satisfy their own insatiable intellectual curiosities? While other forms of media have come to monopolize consumers’ leisure time, in the past two decades book clubs have proliferated, Amazon has sponsored thriving online discussions, Oprah Winfrey has inspired millions of viewers to read both contemporary works and classics, and novels have retained their devoted following within middlebrow communities. In Reading as Therapy, Timothy Aubry argues that contemporary fiction serves primarily as a therapeutic tool for lonely, dissatisfied middle-class American readers, one that validates their own private dysfunctions while supporting elusive communities of strangers unified by shared feelings. Aubry persuasively makes the case that contemporary literature’s persistent appeal depends upon its capacity to perform a therapeutic function. Aubry traces the growth and proliferation of psychological concepts focused on the subjective interior within mainstream, middle-class society and the impact this has had on contemporary fiction. The prevailing tendency among academic critics has been to decry the personal emphasis of contemporary fiction as complicit with the rise of a narcissistic culture, the ascendency of liberal individualism, and the breakdown of public life. Reading as Therapy, by contrast, underscores the varied ideological effects that therapeutic culture can foster. To uncover the many unpredictable ways in which contemporary literature answers the psychological needs of its readers, Aubry considers several different venues of reader-response—including Oprah’s Book Club and Amazon customer reviews—the promotional strategies of publishing houses, and a variety of contemporary texts, ranging from Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner to Anita Shreve’s The Pilot’s Wife to David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. He concludes that, in the face of an atomistic social landscape, contemporary fiction gives readers a therapeutic vocabulary that both reinforces the private sphere and creates surprising forms of sympathy and solidarity among strangers.