Full article available in Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, Volume 9, Issue 1, November 2012
Abstract
This study uses ethnographic audience research to contextualize self-help reading and investigates connections between gender, identity and the reception of self-help texts. The social context of self-help reading is more nuanced than critiques of self-help ideology and consumerism currently allow. Instead of seeing the self-help genre as exploiting individual and social problems for profit, this study describes a spiritual subculture in which self-help reading is also a source of authority and an expression of social identity. These findings challenge previous assumptions that self-help ideology minimizes the need for social interaction, discourages community building and isolates readers from the help of others.
KEYWORDS: ethnographic audience research, interpretive communities, self-help, spirituality, women’s popular culture, Oprah’s Book Club, Eckhart Tolle