Oprah, celebrity, and formations of self / Sherryl Wilson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilson, Sherryl, 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Winfrey, Oprah--Criticism and interpretation.

Winfrey, Oprah.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 230 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Summary:

Oprah, Celebrity and Formations of Self argues that a reading of this popular television show is contingent on understanding the cultural context in which it is produced. By examining versions of self in two key, conflicting American cultural traditions, and through a systematic analysis of the shows themselves and the Oprah persona, the book offers cumulative evidence that Oprah is an ambivalent text. The book argues that the persona of Oprah Winfrey is the embodiment of conflicts, acting as a conduit for a self-expression that emerges from the clash of antagonistic forces. Thus, The Oprah Winfrey Show is used as a case study to show how contradictory cultural constructions of self combine in a carnivalesque play to produce something new. It is this 'something new' that accounts for Oprah's popularity in contemporary popular culture.

Contents:

The Oprah Winfrey Show: a popular phenomenon 1

Selfhood and Oprah 3

Cultural histories and cultural practices 7

A textual analysis of Oprah 10

Textual analysis: confession, testimony and narrative 11

Textual analysis: celebrity and Oprah 14

1 About Television Talk Shows 16

Trash TV and the public display of emotional talk 21

Social effects of talk shows 21

The display of emotional life 23

Public space/public debate 27

Confession, testimony, trash and the therapeutic 33

TV talk shows and 'race' 43

A black feminist perspective 43

'Race' and representation 45

2 Anxiety and Agency: Oprah and Constructions of Self 52

'Our fear is enormous': anxiety and a sense of loss of agency 55

The therapeutic, consumer culture and the self 57

The psychopathology of American culture and the turn to the therapeutic 60

Consumption, family and interpersonal relations 64

'There's hope for you at home': African American and black feminist thought, self and agency 72

Despair, self-recovery and community 74

Hope, writing and self-definition 79

Memory, excavated and reconstructed histories 82

Marginality, remembering and the self 83

Community, lived experience and black feminist thought 85

Speaking out and talking back: call and response, and Oprah 92

3 Confessional Discourse on Oprah 96

The dynamics of confessing 97

The structure of the show 'Lose Weight, Lose Friends' 98

Winfrey as confessing subject 104

The confessing family 109

Writing, power and selfhood 113

Processes of 'raced' identification 115

Private stories, public display 117

4 Oprah and Narrating the Self 121

Narratives of completion 127

'Girl Power' (BBC2, 15.11.95) 127

'Real Life Dramas' (BBC2, 4.11.95) 130

'Men and Women Communicating' (Channel 4, 31.10.95) 135

'Date Violence' (Channel 4, 24.10.95) 137

Ongoing narratives 147

Commencement narratives 148

5 The Oprah Persona 156

Theories of celebrity 159

The Oprah persona and the management of celebrity 164

The Oprah persona and the management of 'race' 172

The 'grotesque body' and Oprah 183

Self-realisation through transgression 188.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-226) and index.

ISBN:

1403916810

OCLC:

52409950