1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910460090303321

Autore

Aubry Timothy Richard <1975->

Titolo

Reading as therapy [[electronic resource] ] : what contemporary fiction does for middle-class Americans / / Timothy Aubry

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, c2011

ISBN

1-58729-956-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (269 p.)

Disciplina

306.4/88

Soggetti

Fiction - History and criticism - Theory, etc

Reading - Psychological aspects

Bibliotherapy

Literature and society - United States

Books and reading - United States

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.