Self-help Books: Why Americans Keep Reading Them - Couverture rigide

Dolby, Sandra K.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0252029747 ISBN 13 : 9780252029745

Editeur : University of Illinois Press, 2005

Synopsis

Based on a reading of more than three hundred self-help books, Sandra K. Dolby examines this remarkably popular genre to define \u0022self-help\u0022 in a way that's compelling to academics and lay readers alike. Self-Help Books also offers an interpretation of why these books are so popular, arguing that they continue the well-established American penchant for self-education, articulate problems of daily life and supposed solutions for them, and present their content in an accessible rather than arcane form and style. Using methods associated with folklore studies, Dolby then examines how the genre makes use of stories, aphorisms, and a worldview that is at once traditional and contemporary. The overarching premise of the study is that self-help books, much like fairy tales, take traditional materials, especially stories and ideas, and recast them into extended essays that people happily read, think about, try to apply, and then set aside when a new embodiment of the genre comes along.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Sandra K. Dolby, Director of the Folklore Institute and professor of folklore and American studies at Indiana University, is the author of Literary Folkloristics and the Personal Narrative.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Illinois Press
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0252029747
• ISBN 13: 9780252029745
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 208
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible