The Oprah Affect

Cathleen Collins

Description

The Oprah Affect explores the cultural impact of Oprah's Book Club, particularly in light of debates about the definition and purpose of literature in American culture. For the critics collected here, Oprah's Book Club stands, in the context of American literary history, not as an egregious undermining of who we are and what we represent, as some have maintained, but as the latest manifestation of a tradition that encourages symbiotic relationships between readers and texts. Powered by women writers and readers, novels in this tradition attract crowds, sell well, and make unabashed appeals to emotion. The essays consider the interlocking issues of affect, affinity, accessibility, and activism in the context of this tradition. Juxtaposing book history; reading practices; literary analysis; feminist criticism; and communication, religious, political, and cultural studies; the contributors map a range of possibilities for further research on Oprah's Book Club. A complete chronological list of Book Club picks is included.
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Jaime Harker and Cecilia Konchar Farr

1. Oprah in the Public Library
Juliette Wells and Virginia Wells

2. Talking Readers
Cecilia Konchar Farr

3. Reading Religiously: The Ritual Practices of Oprah’s Book Club
Kathryn Lofton

4. The Romance of Reading Like Oprah
Yung-Hsing Wu

5. Oprah’s Book Selections: Teleliterature for The Oprah Winfrey Show
R. Mark Hall

6. Resisting Paradise: Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, and the  Middlebrow Audience
Michael Perry

7. Oprah’s Book Club and the Politics of Cross-Racial Empathy
Kimberly Chabot Davis

8. Beware the Furrow of the Middlebrow: Searching for Toni Morrison’s Paradise on The Oprah Winfrey Show
Timothy Aubry

9. “Did Isabel Allende Write This Book for Me?”: Oprah’s Book Club Reads Daughter of Fortune
Ana Patricia Rodríguez

10. The Trouble with Happy Endings: Conflicting Narratives in Oprah’s Book Club
Kelley Penfield Lewis

11. Your Book Changed My Life: Everyday Literary Criticism and Oprah’s Book Club
Kate Douglas

12. Correcting Oprah: Jonathan Franzen and the Uses of Literature in the Therapeutic Age
Kevin Quirk

13. The Way We Read Now: Oprah Winfrey, Intellectuals, and Democracy
Simon Stow

14. Everything Old Is New Again: Oprah’s Book Club Returns with the Classics
Kathleen Rooney

Afterword: Oprah, James Frey, and the Problem of the Literary
Jaime Harker

List of Contributors
Oprah’s Book Club List
Index

Sujets

• Popular culture

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780791477441
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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The Oprah Affect

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The Oprah Affect

Critical Essays on Oprah’s Book Club

Edited by Cecilia Konchar Farr and Jaime Harker

S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Kelli W. LeRoux Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

The Oprah affect : critical essays on Oprah’s book club / edited by Cecilia Konchar Farr and Jaime Harker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7615-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7914-7616-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Book clubs (Discussion groups)—United States. 2. Books and reading—United States. 3. Literature and society—United States. 4. Winfrey, Oprah—Influence. 5. Oprah Winfrey show. I. Farr, Cecilia Konchar, 1958– II. Harker, Jaime.

LC6651.O67 2008 374'.22—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2008000120

For Gloria Cronin,

who first invited us to become professors,

and for Feminist Home Evening,

where we invited one another to be scholars and activists.

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Acknowledgments

Introduction

C ONTENTS

JAIME HARKER AND CECILIA KONCHAR FARR

Oprah in the Public Library JULIETTE WELLS AND VIRGINIA WELLS

Talking Readers

CECILIA KONCHAR FARR

Reading Religiously:

KATHRYN LOFTON

The Ritual Practices of Oprah’s Book Club

The Romance of Reading Like Oprah YUNG-HSING WU

Oprah’s Book Selections: Teleliterature for The Oprah Winfrey Show MARK HALL

Resisting Paradise: Toni Morrison, Oprah Middlebrow Audience

MICHAEL PERRY

Winfrey, and the

Oprah’s Book Club and the Politics of Cross-Racial Empathy

KIMBERLY CHABOT DAVIS

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CONTENTS

Beware the Furrow of the Middlebrow: Searching for ParadiseonThe Oprah Winfrey Show

TIMOTHY AUBRY

“Did Isabel Allende Write Oprah’s Book Club Reads

This Book for Me?”: Daughter of Fortune

ANA PATRICIA RODRÍGUEZ

The Trouble with Happy Endings: Conflicting Narratives in Oprah’s Book Club

KELLEY PENFIELD LEWIS

Your Book Changed My Life: Everyday Literary Criticism and Oprah’s Book Club KATE DOUGLAS

Correcting Oprah: Jonathan Franzen and the Uses of Literature in the Therapeutic Age KEVIN QUIRK

The Way We Read Now: Oprah Winfrey, Intellectuals, and Democracy SIMON STOW

Everything Old Is New Again: Oprah’s Book Club Returns with the Classics

KATHLEEN ROONEY

Afterword: Oprah, James Frey, and the Problem of the Literary JAIME HARKER

List of Contributors

Oprah’s Book Club List

Index

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