Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture

Abstract

Oprah Winfrey the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture Eva Illouz. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. book of staggering breadth, depth, detail, F.va Tllou7, successfully launches vigorous defense of both popular culture Oprah Winfrey while formulating her own critique of Oprah Winfrey's cultural enterprise the practice of cultural criticism. Illouz achieves these feats by relying on extensive research, tireless patience for minute detail, highly original methodological practice. Drawing on Oprah's website, O magazine, the novels chosen for Oprah's book club, the TV show itself, Illouz demonstrates an astonishing understanding of the way Oprah, as cultural economic force, appeals to her global audience. order to locate the in these cultural text, Illouz steers away from an ideological or strict discourse analysis in favor of slightly more risky tack: reading Oprah's cultural empire through the very intentions that are deeply embedded in the empire -Oprah's own. While acknowledging the dangers of the intention argument, Illouz successfully explains that Oprah's own intentions are deeply implicated into all aspects of her cultural production. Arguing that we cannot judge cultural phenomenon such as the Oprah enterprise on outdated or arbitrary grounds dictated by the standards of high culture, Illouz persuasively argues that cultural critics must judge Oprah based on her own stated implicit intention: to heal. Significantly, Illouz argues that Oprah in fact fails to live up to her oft-repeated intentions. The glamour of misery referred to in the title of the book points to how the theme of suffering pervades the Oprah show, Web site, magazine. Misery suffering serve as the link, Illouz argues, between Oprah her guests. Illouz wants to link Oprah's emphasis on the theme of suffering and the institutions that have produced the forms of suffering she stages (112). other words, modernity itself has unleashed laundry list of real forms of suffering, telling stories about our suffering is one way of having self in modernity. Moreover, Oprah's show, Web site, magazine consistently deal with moral dilemmas of the modern age, exploring how one ought to behave in world that is endlessly painful difficult. Poverty, unemployment, stressful work conditions, other modern material ills serve as the backdrop, then, for the moral predicaments of modern existence: autonomy, marriage, obligation, sexuality, friendship. Suffering, for Illouz, is a cultural category in its own right, as text rich in meanings (111). Enter Oprah, who offers powerful symbolic tools rituals to alleviate the uncertainties of modern life. Both the show the Oprah Web site are tools of communication for those struggling with the suffering of everyday life. In that sense, Oprah's texts offer themselves as cultural strategies to cope with chaos meaninglessness (116). However, Illouz argues, Oprah's promotion of self-help is also the most difficult aspect of her enterprise. While Illouz beautifully defends Oprah against the charges of eroding the public sphere, voyeurism, the commodification of sentiments, Illouz suggests that Oprah refuses to let any forms of suffering transform into anything other than positive value, an uplifting experience, an opportunity to rewrite the life narrative. …