Age of Oprah Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era [Paperback]

Over the last two decades Oprah Winfrey's journey has taken her from talk show queen to-as Time Magazine has asserted- one of the most important figures in popular culture. Through her talk show, magazine, website, seminars, charity work, and public appearances, her influence in the social, economic, and political arenas of American life is considerable and until now, largely unexamined. In The Age of Oprah, media scholar and journalist Janice Peck traces Winfrey's growing cultural impact and illustrates the fascinating parallels between her road to fame and fortune and the political-economic rise of neoliberalism in this country. While seeking to understand Oprah's ascent to the near- iconic status that she enjoys today, Peck's book provides a fascinating window into the intersection of American politics and culture over the past quarter century.Preface Chapter 1: The Age of Oprah: Culture and Politics in the Neoliberal Era Chapter 2: The Therapeutic Enterprise and the Quest for Women's Hearts and Minds Chapter 3: Backlash Politics, the Dysfunctional Self, and the Recovery Cure Chapter 4: Recovery and Reaganism: The Psychologization of the Political and the Politics of Pathology Chapter 5: Mind Cure, the Enchanted Self, and the New Liberal Covenant Chapter 6: Transcending Race : The Racial Politics of Oprah Winfrey and New Liberalism Chapter 7: The Oprah Brand and the Enterprising Self Chapter 8: The Anxieties of the Enterprising Self and the Limits of Mind Cure in the Age of Oprah Oprah Winfrey Show Episodes Cited Notes References Index About the AuthorOprah Winfrey has been influencing American political life since long before she opted to endorse Barack Obama for the presidency. In her meticulously researched and captivating account, Janice Peck shows us how Winfrey has wielded the discourse of personal empowerment to amass her own considerable personal power while tightly controlling a brand that stands for individual ratherl³»