The Oprah phenomenon / edited by Jennifer Harris, Elwood Watson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harris, Jennifer, 1971- editor.

Watson, Elwood, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 p.)

Edition:

Updated edition.

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2007]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With a Foreword by Robert J. Thompson Her image is iconic: Oprah Winfrey has built an empire on her ability to connect with and inspire her audience. No longer just a name, ""Oprah"" has become a brand representing the talk show host's unique style of self-actualizing individualism. The cultural and economic power wielded by Winfrey merits critical evaluation. The contributors to The Oprah Phenomenon examine the origins of her public image and its substantial influence on politics, entertainment, and popular opinion. Contributors address praise from her many supporters and weigh criticisms

Contents:

Introduction: Oprah Winfrey as subject and spectacle / Jennifer Harris and Elwood Watson. Pt. I. Oprah Winfrey and race. The specter of Oprah Winfrey: critical black female spectatorship / Tarshia L. Stanley

My mom and Oprah Winfrey: her appeal to white women / Linda Kay

The "Oprahization" of America: The man show and the redefinition of black femininity / Valerie Palmer-Mehta. Pt. II. Oprah Winfrey on the stage. Oprah Winfrey and women's autobiography: a televisual performance of the therapeutic self / Eva Illouz and Nik John

From fasting to self-acceptance: Oprah Winfrey and weight loss in American culture / Ella Howard

Spiritual talk: The Oprah Winfrey show and the popularization of the New Age / Maria McGrath

Oprah Winfrey and spirituality / Denise Martin

Phenomenon on trial: reading rhetoric at Texas Beef v. Oprah Winfrey / Jennifer Richardson. Pt. III. Oprah Winfrey on the page. Oprah's Book Club and the American dream / Malin Pereira

Some lessons before dying: gender, morality, and the missing critical discourse in Oprah's Book Club / Roberta F. Hammett and Audrey Dentith

Making corrections to Oprah's Book Club: reclaiming literary power for gendered literacy management / Sarah Robbins

Knowing for sure: epistemologies of the autonomous self in O, the Oprah magazine / Marjorie Jolles

Oprah Winfrey's branding of personal empowerment / Damiana Gibbons.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8131-7213-6

0-8131-3709-8

OCLC:

166261766