Rhetorical healing : the reeducation of contemporary Black womanhood / Tamika L. Carey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carey, Tamika L., 1978- author.

Series:

SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Intellectual life.

African American women.

African American women--Psychology.

African American women in literature.

Psychic trauma in literature.

Healing.

Self-help techniques--United States.

Self-help techniques.

American literature--Women authors.

Psychological literature.

United States.

Psychological literature--United States.

Spiritual life in literature.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--African American authors.

American literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xi, 212 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2016]

Summary:

Since the Black women's literary renaissance ended nearly three decades ago, a profitable and expansive market of self-help books, inspirational literature, family-friendly plays, and films marketed to Black women has emerged. Through messages of hope and responsibility, the writers of these texts develop templates that tap into legacies of literacy as activism, preaching techniques, and narrative formulas to teach strategies for overcoming personal traumas or dilemmas and resuming one's quality of life. Drawing upon Black vernacular culture as well as scholarship in rhetorical theory, literacy studies, Black feminism, literary theory, and cultural studies, Tamika L. Carey deftly traces discourses on healing within the writings and teachings of such figures as Oprah Winfrey, Iyanla Vanzant, T. D. Jakes, and Tyler Perry, revealing the arguments and curricula they rely on to engage Black women and guide them to an idealized conception of wellness. As Carey demonstrates, Black women's wellness campaigns indicate how African Americans use rhetorical education to solve social problems within their communities and the complex gender politics that are mass-produced when these efforts are commercialized. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Are You Sure You Want to Be Well?: Healing and the Situation of Black Women's Pain 15

2 I Need You to Survive: Theorizing Rhetorical Healing 31

3 I'll Teach You to See Again: The Rhetoric of Revision in Iyanla Vanzant's Self-Help Franchise 48

4 Come Ye Disconsolate: The Rhetoric of Transformation in T.D. Jakes's Women's Ministry 78

5 Take Your Place: The Rhetoric of Return in Tyler Perry's Films 112

6 With Vision and Voice: Black Women's Rhetorical Healing in Everyday Use 143.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-194) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Carey, Tamika L., 1978- author. Rhetorical healing.

ISBN:

9781438462431

1438462433

OCLC:

945549954