Oprah Winfrey is the protagonist of the story to be told here, but this book has broader intentions, begins Eva Illouz in this original examination of... how and why this talk show host has become a pervasive symbol in American culture. Unlike studies of talk shows that decry debased cultural standards and impoverished political consciousness, Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery asks us to rethink our perceptions of culture in general and popular culture in particular.At a time when crises of morality, beliefs, value systems, and personal worth dominate both public and private spheres, Oprah's emergence as a cultural form -- the Oprah persona -- becomes clearer, as she successfully reiterates some of our most pressing moral questions. Drawing on nearly one hundred show transcripts; a year and a half of watching the show regularly; and analysis of magazine articles, several biographies, O Magazine, Oprah Book Club novels, self-help manuals promoted on the show, and hundreds of discussions on the Oprah Winfrey Web site, Illouz takes the Oprah industry seriously, revealing it to be a multilayered "textual structure" that initiates, stages, and performs narratives of suffering and self-improvement that resonate with a wide audience and challenge traditional models of cultural analysis. This book looks closely at Oprah's method and her message, and in the process reconsiders popular culture and the tools we use to understand it.

Like the Puritan-era narratives she studies, Hannah Guttentag’s early-1990s narrative is a chronicle of the strange places she travels—Nashville,... Ithaca, New Orleans, Cleveland, Nebraska—the savages who captivate her—librarians, grad students, professors, her baby—and the redemption she earns.Josh Russell's previous novels are Yellow Jack and My Bright Midnight. An Illinois native—born in Carbondale, raised in Normal—he now lives in Decatur, Georgia with his wife and daughter.

On a frosty day in November 1831, Rebecca Burlend and her husband, John, and their five children debarked at New Orleans after a long voyage from... England. They took a steamboat up the Mississippi to St. Louis and from there went to the wilds of western Illinois. It was a whole new world for a family that had never been more than fifty miles from home in rural Yorkshire.Rebecca’s narrative, written with the help of her son, was first published in 1848 as a pamphlet for people of her own class in England who might be considering migration to America. It records the daily struggle and also the satisfactions of homesteading in the Old Northwest: life in a log cabin; food, clothes, and furniture of the period; early churches and schools; the unspoiled countryside and its denizens. With courage and self-reliance Rebecca Burlend accepted the privations and difficulties of this pioneering venture.

Miguel Barnet's A True Story is based on the life of Julián Mesa, a Cuban living in New York City. The novel spans the years between the 1930s to the... 1980s as the protagonist moves from Cuba to the US. Throughout the novel Julián, a building supervisor in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, recounts his life beginning with his early childhood years in the Cuban countryside and ending on the brink of tears as he dreams about an island which he dreams of seeing again. His account tells of the brutal work of the Cuban peasant in the sugarcane fields as well as the oppressive unemployment situation in Havana during the 1930s and 40s. Arriving in New York before the triumph of the Revolution in search of better opportunities, Julián struggles to keep Cuba alive within him through language, newspapers, social clubs, radio, and letters. A True Story highlights the Hispanic community in New York, especially the close relationships between Cubans and Puerto Ricans, and acknowledges the important events that took place in this city which are fundamental to the history of Cuba. Barnet brings to life the voice of a man with a deeply broken heart that would otherwise be silenced. Miguel Barnet is a major novelist, poet, and ethnographer living in Havana. He is best known for his testimonial novels. His work is widely read throughout Cuba and abroad and has been translated into numerous languages. He has received many awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Regina Galasso is a professor of Spanish language and literature at The City University of New York. "[A True Story makes us] think about The Old Man and the Sea: a magnificent voyage, dignity where there isn't any, tenderness and resignation, struggle and memories of a lost world. All of that to return to any port with a victory in which everything has been lost." Alfredo Bryce Echenique Unomásuno, Mexico City "In La vida real, Barnet confronts the dilemma of the Latin America immigrant in the United States not from the standpoint of politics, rather, from the perspective of what is universal and human regardless of political and cultural divisions." S.R. Wilson, Chasqui-Revista de literatura latinoamericana

Crafted in a style anticipating the Latin American terstimonia, True Story of a Drunken Mother tells the story of women who drank early, married into... military poverty, had babies and put their whole energy into survival.

Leading Israeli novelist Sami Michael shares his gift for navigating the cultural conflicts in modern Israel with A Trumpet in the Wadi, a novel that... transcends its Middle Eastern setting with an honest and heartbreaking story of impossible love and the strength of family.Set in the months preceding the 1982 Israeli-Arab conflict in Lebanon, this beautifully written tale is the coming-of-age story of two fatherless Christian Arab sisters, Huda and Mary, who live in the wadi -- the Arab quarter in the Jewish city of Haifa on the northern coast of Israel. An extraordinary bond of love and mutual respect unites the sisters -- polar opposites from their appearances to their tempers. Huda, the narrator of the story, is thin and withdrawn and, after abandoning her chance at marriage a few years back, has prematurely resigned herself to the monotonous life of an old maid. Her younger sister, Mary, is voluptuous, carnal, and perennially unemployed. Wrapped in the love of their sometimes bitter mother, their iconoclast grandfather, and the cheerful and omnipresent neighbor Jamilla, the sisters' lives change when a peculiar young Russian Jewish immigrant, Alex, moves into the upstairs flat. The melodies of the soulful trumpet player become the intoxicating theme music for Huda's unexpected reawakening -- and for Mary's dangerous foray into a love triangle with the heir of the local Muslim mob and her country cousin.Michael's internationally acclaimed novel is a major achievement, illuminating the vast range of interlocking relationships between Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, men and women. A Trumpet in the Wadi is an honest, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking story -- one that draws on the conflicts in the Middle East, but one whose insights into love and family can cross all cultural and political boundaries.

During the occupation of West Germany after the Second World War, the American authorities commissioned polls to assess the values and opinions of... ordinary Germans. They concluded that the fascist attitudes of the Nazi era had weakened to a large degree. Theodor W. Adorno and his Frankfurt School colleagues, who returned in 1949 from the United States, were skeptical. They held that standardized polling was an inadequate and superficial method for exploring such questions. In their view, public opinion is not simply an aggregate of individually held opinions, but is fundamentally a public concept, formed through interaction in conversations and with prevailing attitudes and ideas “in the air.” In Group Experiment, edited by Friedrich Pollock, they published their findings on their group discussion experiments that delved deeper into the process of opinion formation. Andrew J. Perrin and Jeffrey K. Olick make a case that these experiments are an important missing link in the ontology and methodology of current social-science survey research.

Set during the year preceding the Easter Uprising of 1916 -- Ireland's brave but fractured revolt against British rule -- At Swim, Two Boys is a tender,... tragic love story and a brilliant depiction of people caught in the tide of history. Powerful and artful, and ten years in the writing, it is a masterwork from Jamie O'Neill. Jim Mack is a naïve young scholar and the son of a foolish, aspiring shopkeeper. Doyler Doyle is the rough-diamond son -- revolutionary and blasphemous -- of Mr. Mack's old army pal. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the nude, the two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter of 1916, they will swim to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves. All the while Mr. Mack, who has grand plans for a corner shop empire, remains unaware of the depth of the boys' burgeoning friendship and of the changing landscape of a nation.

We rely on science to tell us everything from what to eat to when and how long to exercise, but what about relationships? Is there a scientific... explanation for why some people seem to navigate relationships effortlessly, while others struggle? According to psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller, the answer is a resounding "yes."In Attached, Levine and Heller reveal how an understanding of adult attachment-the most advanced relationship science in existence today-can help us find and sustain love. Pioneered by psychologist John Bowlby in the 1950s, the field of attachment posits that each of us behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways: Anxious people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back Avoidant people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness. Secure people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving. In this book Levine and Heller guide readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (or potential mate) follow, offering a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections with the people they love.

Contemporary attachment theory both enriches our understanding of human development and informs clinical practice. Examining the relational bonds... between young children and their caregivers, it traces its origins to several scientific and social fields, most notably psychoanalysis, social work, behaviorism, ethology, evolutionary theory, and biology.The first portion of this book examines attachment theory and its relationship to other psychodynamic theories of development and then discusses the landmark contributions of John Bowlby, the "father" of modern attachment theory. The section concludes with a detailed summary of research on attachment, highlighting the work of Mary Ainsworth, Mary Main, Allan Sroufe, and Peter Fonagy. The second portion focuses on clinical applications with children, adolescents, and adults. Brief vignettes and lengthier case illustrations consider a verity of attachment disorders and treatment approaches, paying special attention to clinical method and technique, process dimensions, and transference and countertransference phenomena. Cases are set in a range of treatment venues, such as college and family counseling service, community mental health centers, and private practice, and involve an ethnoculturally and clinically diverse clientele.

Over fifty years ago, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’s research on the developmental psychology of children formed the basic tenets of attachment... theory.And for years, following these tenets, the theory’s focus has been on how children develop vis-à-vis the attachments—whether secure or insecure—they form with their caregivers. In the therapy room, this has meant working with individuals one-on-one, with the therapist assuming the role of the attachment figure in order to provide a secure base for treating clients’ problems that arose from troubled interpersonal relationships in childhood. Here, Daniel A. Hughes, an eminent clinician and attachment specialist, is the first to expand this traditional model, applying attachment theory to a family therapy setting. Drawing on more than 20 years of clinical experience, Hughes presents his comprehensive, effective, and accessible treatment model for working with all members of a family—not simply the individual in question—to recognize, resolve, and heal personal and family problems using principles from theories of attachment and intersubjectivity. Beginning with an overview of attachment and intersubjectivity—the twin theories from which he forms his treatment plan—Hughes carefully outlines, chapter by chapter, the core principles and strategies of his family-based approach. He elaborates on the need to develop and maintain PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy)—the central therapeutic stance of attachment-focused family therapy—and supplies tips and sample dialogues for implementing this position. The importance of fostering affective/reflective (a/r) dialogue is covered in detail, as well as helping families to manage shame, understand and embrace the break-and-repair cycle of their interactions, and explore and resolve childhood trauma. Also discussed are the more procedural issues of how to incorporate parents into therapeutic conversations, when and how to question them on their own attachment histories, and how to “be” with children. Grounded in the fundamental principle of parents facilitating the healthy emotional development of their children, Attachment-Focused Family Therapy is the first book of its kind to offer therapists a complete manual for using attachment therapy with families. Extensive case studies, vignettes, and sample dialogues throughout clearly demonstrate how Hughes’s model plays out in the therapy room. By showing therapists how to create a bond of psychological safety and intersubjective discovery with parents and caregivers, Hughes reveals how they, in turn, can bring about similar experiences of safety and discovery for their children.