Self-Help Books
File Name:Self-Help Books
Posted By:Sandra K. Dolby
Published on 2010-10-01 by University of Illinois Press
ISBN-10:0252090993
Status : AVAILABLE Last checked: 12 Minutes ago!
Ratting: 
4.6 of 5 from 889 votes. Ready to download
In order to read or download eBook, you need to create FREE account.
eBook available in PDF, ePub, MOBI and Kindle versions
Book Summary
Based on a reading of more than three hundred self-help books, Sandra K. Dolby examines this remarkably popular genre to define |self-help| 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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment