ISBN:
9781587299568
Language:
English
Pages:
1 online resource (269 pages)
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
306.4/88
Keywords:
Fiction--History and criticism--Theory, etc
;
Reading, Psychology of
;
Bibliotherapy
;
Literature and society--United States
;
Books and reading--United States
;
Reading - Psychological aspects
;
Electronic books
;
Electronic books
Abstract:
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
Abstract:
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One - Searching for Paradise on The Oprah Winfrey Show -- Chapter Two - Therapy and Displacement in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood -- Chapter Three - Infinite Jest and the Recovery of Feeling -- Chapter Four - The Pain of Reading A Million Little Pieces -- Chapter Five - The Politics of Interiority in The Pilot's Wife -- Chapter Six - Reading The Kite Runner in America -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Note:
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