Oprah Affect

Cecilia Konchar Farr is Professor of English and Women's Studies at the College of St. Catherine and author of Reading Oprah: How Oprah's Book Club Changed the Way America Reads, also published by SUNY Press. Jaime Harker is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Writing Across the Curriculum at the University of Mississippi and author of America the Middlebrow: Women's Novels, Progressivism, and Middlebrow Authorship between the Wars.

"Solidly, Farr and Harker's The Oprah Affect has much intellectual heft substantiated by critiques that are profoundly thought-provoking. Its arguments clearly present what impact the Oprah Affect has on its readers and viewers." — Afro-Americans in New York Life and History"…the essays here concern themselves largely with the book club's emphasis on its primarily female readers' emotional responses to literature, transforming reading into a social event … Presenting a variety of perspectives and views, this collection provides a diverse analysis of this social phenomenon." — CHOICE"This collection is important not only for those interested in Oprah's Book Club, but also for all of us who are interested in contemporary reading practices and, in particular, the sociology of literature. The theoretical foundations found in the various essays are wide-ranging, and the research methods used and discussed illustrate the exciting potential of reading scholarship. This is a valuable collection that will appeal to students and scholars across the academy." — DeNel Rehberg Sedo, Mount Saint Vincent University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionJaime Harker and Cecilia Konchar Farr 1. Oprah in the Public Library Juliette Wells and Virginia Wells 2. Talking ReadersCecilia Konchar Farr 3. Reading Religiously: The Ritual Practices of Oprah’s Book Club Kathryn Lofton 4. The Romance of Reading Like OprahYung-Hsing Wu 5. Oprah’s Book Selections: Teleliterature for The Oprah Winfrey ShowR. Mark Hall 6. Resisting Paradise: Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, and the  Middlebrow AudienceMichael Perry 7. Oprah’s Book Club and the Politics of Cross-Racial Empathy Kimberly Chabot Davis 8. Beware the Furrow of the Middlebrow: Searching for Toni Morrison’s Paradise on The Oprah Winfrey Show Timothy Aubry 9. "Did Isabel Allende Write This Book for Me?": Oprah’s Book Club Reads Daughter of FortuneAna Patricia Rodríguez 10. The Trouble with Happy Endings: Conflicting Narratives in Oprah’s Book Club Kelley Penfield Lewis 11. Your Book Changed My Life: Everyday Literary Criticism and Oprah’s Book Club Kate Douglas 12. Correcting Oprah: Jonathan Franzen and the Uses of Literature in the Therapeutic AgeKevin Quirk 13. The Way We Read Now: Oprah Winfrey, Intellectuals, and DemocracySimon Stow 14. Everything Old Is New Again: Oprah’s Book Club Returns with the Classics Kathleen RooneyAfterword: Oprah, James Frey, and the Problem of the LiteraryJaime HarkerList of ContributorsOprah’s Book Club ListIndex