American literature and therapeutic cultures / edited by Nicholas Manning, Martin Halliwell.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Manning, Nicholas, 1982- editor.

Halliwell, Martin, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Medicine in literature.

Psychotherapy in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2026]

Summary:

"Traces the evolving relationship between American literature and therapeutic cultures across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuriesHighlights the ongoing dialogue between literature and therapeutic cultures throughout modern and contemporary American literary historyShows how American literary texts both reflect and challenge therapeutic practices and ideologiesMoves beyond simplistic views of literature's relationship with psychology to reveal complex interdisciplinary interactionsExplores the hazards and benefits of literature's role as a restorative tool for the self that have become widespread in neoliberal societiesAddresses how Black and women authors in particular critically engage with the therapeutic literary spaceThis volume explores the myriad interactions between American literature and psychological discourses in the United States, from self-help to alternative health practices to psychotherapeutic approaches. Spanning the 1940s to the 2020s, it sheds light on the development and conceptualization of therapeutic culture during a century in which it has oscillated between clinical and cultural domains. Bringing together an intergenerational group of scholars from France, the UK and the US, the collection examines authors as varied as William Carlos Williams, Lionel Trilling, Sylvia Plath, Philip Roth, Colson Whitehead, Daniel Suarez and Ottessa Moshfegh. Moving beyond the conventional focus on psychoanalysis, the eleven contributors foreground how American literature is animated by broader therapeutic modes and trajectories. At stake are not only literature's historical links to psychological theories and institutions, but the neoliberal framing of literary texts as tools for personal restoration"-- De Gruyter Brill.

Contents:

Introduction : American literature and therapeutic cultures / Nicholas Manning, Martin Halliwell

“Art was Williams’s therapy” : William Carlos Williams’s maieutic process in Paterson / Samantha Lemeunier

Public displays of disaffection : Lionel Trilling and the power of neurosis / Timothy Aubry

From resistance to reconnection : Sylvia Plath under the lens of new therapeutics / Aubrey Jones

Curing the collective? Postwar experimental and performance poetry as social therapy / Célia Galey

Diagnosing the lyric : therapeutic cultures and gender in postwar American poetry / Juliette Bouanani

Pathogenic culture and therapeutic discipline in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys and Black American literature / Jean-Paul Rocchi

Catharsis unbound : mythopsychosis in Jerome Charyn’s autofictions / Michaëla Cogan

Science fiction and the emotional choreography of postgenomic life cultures / Martin Halliwell

“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” : vulnerability and therapeutic imaginations in Ottessa Moshfegh’s contemporary fiction / Alwena Queillé

Epilogue : therapeutic fictions and democratic futures / Peter Boxall.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed February 12, 2206).

Other Format:

Print version: American literature and therapeutic cultures

ISBN:

9781399551359

1399551353

9781399551342

1399551345

OCLC:

1559037243

Publisher Number:

CIPO000313362

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license