종교가 된 대중문화: <오프라 윈프리 쇼>, 치유 서사, 감성적 공공영역

Abstract

Since 1980s TV talk shows have come to occupy a central place in American media culture. Oprah Winfrey Show is one of the most influential programs in American television in history. It invented a new cultural form that interrogated the moral meaning of the experience of the psychic suffering and anxiety in the form of TV talk show. Therapeutic narrative is the name of this new cultural form. Therapeutic narrative is a narrative of suffering and self-change. With her own distinct communicative style and combination of charismatic authority and everyday familiarity, Oprah Winfrey created a language of therapy to manage and change the self, in which the painful experience is translated into a ritualized performance of healing. This paper examines how Oprah Winfrey Show as an effective therapeutic narrative performs what has been traditionally conceived as the function of the religion of a society. Finally, focusing on her cultural identity as an African American women, it investigates how Oprah Winfrey has brought to American culture powerful symbolic resources to cope with psychic pains and inner traumas.