Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture
Oprah Winfrey is the protagonist of the story to be told here, but this book has broader intentions, begins Eva Illouz in this original examination of how and why this talk show host has become a pervasive symbol in American culture. Unlike studies of talk shows that decry debased cultural standards and impoverished political consciousness, Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery asks us to rethink our perceptions of culture in general and popular culture in particular.
At a time when crises of morality, beliefs, value systems, and personal worth dominate both public and private spheres, Oprah's emergence as a cultural form--the Oprah persona--becomes clearer, as she successfully reiterates some of our most pressing moral questions. Drawing on nearly one hundred show transcripts; a year and a half of watching the show regularly; and analysis of magazine articles, several biographies, O Magazine, Oprah Book Club novels, self-help manuals promoted on the show, and hundreds of discussions on the Oprah Winfrey Web site, Illouz takes the Oprah industry seriously, revealing it to be a multilayered "textual structure" that initiates, stages, and performs narratives of suffering and self-improvement that resonate with a wide audience and challenge traditional models of cultural analysis. This book looks closely at Oprah's method and her message, and in the process reconsiders popular culture and the tools we use to understand it. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION OPRAH WINFREY AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE
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3 |
THE SUCCESS OF A SELFFAILED WOMAN
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18 |
EVERYDAY LIFE AS THE UNCANNY THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW AS A NEW CULTURAL GENRE
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49 |
PAIN AND CIRCUSES
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79 |
THE HYPERTEXT OF IDENTITY
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122 |
SUFFERING AND SELFHELP AS GLOBAL FORMS OF IDENTITY
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158 |
THE SOURCES AND RESOURCES OF THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW
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180 |
TOWARD AN IMPURE CRITIQUE OF POPULAR CULTURE
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208 |
CONCLUSION ORDINARY PEOPLE EXTRAORDINARY TELEVISION
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238 |
NOTES
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245 |
265 | |
295 | |
299 | |
Other editions - View all
Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture Eva Illouz Limited preview - 2003 |
Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture Eva Illouz No preview available - 2003 |
Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture Eva Illouz No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
actors African American culture analysis argue audience become black women Book Club chapter characterized charismatic claim Club novels compassion contemporary created critical critique cultural form discourse Donahue emotional ethos everyday example experience fact forms of suffering frame genre global guests habitus healing Ibid identity individual institutions intentions interpretation Iyanla Vanzant lives Martha Nussbaum Max Weber meaning middle-class moral mother norms novels offers one's Oprah Win Oprah Winfrey Show Oprah's biography Oprah's Book Club ordinary pain particular person Phil Donahue Show Phil McGraw political popular culture postmodern problem psychic psychological public sphere Radway realm relationship role self-change self-help selfhood sense sexual abuse social spectacle speech story strategies structure suggests symbolic talk shows television theme therapeutic narrative tion traditional Transcript transform tural ture turn understand victim viewers voyeurism White Oleander Winfrey's woman