Reading as therapy : what contemporary fiction does for middle-class Americans / Timothy Aubry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aubry, Timothy Richard, 1975-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Fiction.

Reading--Psychological aspects.

Reading.

Bibliotherapy.

Literature and society--United States.

Literature and society.

Books and reading--United States.

Books and reading.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Searching for paradise on the Oprah Winfrey Show

Therapy and displacement in divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood

Infinite jest and the recovery of feeling

The pain of reading A million little pieces

The politics of interiority in The pilot's wife

Reading The kite runner in America.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781587299568

1587299569

OCLC:

719388645