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American Literature and Therapeutic Cultures

(Hardback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

American Literature and Therapeutic Cultures

Contributors:

By (Author) Nicholas Manning
Edited by Martin Halliwell

ISBN:

9781399551328

Publisher:

Edinburgh University Press

Imprint:

Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date:

9th June 2026

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Other Subjects:

Literary studies: from c 2000
Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

272

Dimensions:

Width 156mm, Height 234mm

Description

This volume explores the myriad interactions between American literature and psychological discourses in the United States, from self-help to alternative health practices to psychotherapeutic approaches. Spanning the 1940s to the 2020s, it sheds light on the development and conceptualization of therapeutic culture during a century in which it has oscillated between clinical and cultural domains. Bringing together an intergenerational group of scholars from France, the UK and the US, the collection examines authors as varied as William Carlos Williams, Lionel Trilling, Sylvia Plath, Philip Roth, Colson Whitehead, Daniel Suarez and Ottessa Moshfegh. Moving beyond the conventional focus on psychoanalysis, the eleven contributors foreground how American literature is animated by broader therapeutic modes and trajectories. At stake are not only literature's historical links to psychological theories and institutions, but the neoliberal framing of literary texts as tools for personal restoration.

Author Bio

Nicholas Manning is Professor of American Literature at Universite Grenoble Alpes and a fellow of the Institut universitaire de France. His most recent monograph is The Artifice of Affect: American Realist Literature and Emotional Truth (2023).

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