Persuasion in Self-improvement Books

Koay, Jeremy

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-12149-5

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Corpus linguistics shows how often, in the books, 'you' will be addressed directly, and exhorted to actively improve your life. 11 The pronoun is most frequently collocated with the words 'are', 'have', 'can', 'will', 'want', 'do', 'may', 'need' to act, and often followed by imperatives about modes of thinking ('consider', 'remember', 'imagine'). The content offered is split into short sections (chapters tend to be under ten pages, for instance), to allow the reader to take a non-linear approach, as she moves between topics that strike her.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Sullivan¹

2023

Shakespeare Survey 76

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Setting aside the fancy (pleasing though it is) that Elizabethan and Jacobean society pullulated with hot lovers, critics have offered a range of weighty explanations for the popularity of the literature of obsession, from attracting the attention of the monarch, to artistic rivalry, to making subjectivity the subject of study. 1 This article suggests a more tongue-in-cheek approach to advice on love in Sidney and Shakespeare, based on recent reappraisals of the use to which self-help books are put. Readers approach these as refreshing fantasies of a radical potential change in lifestyle, but with little intention of putting most (if any) of their advice into practice. From this perspective, Astrophil and Stella (1591) depicts a lover who encourages counsel only to resist it, a move which gives a new view of the lovecure game played between Rosalind and Orlando in As You Like It (1599).Today's self-help books share similar techniques to cure the unhappily obsessed. In some cases, this is a serious business, of course: bibliotherapy can be an effective way to allow people to understand their mental condition, so they cease to be merely objects of advice and treatment. When readers re-describe their own situations to themselves in different genres, or recognize similarities in texts by others, including fictional ones, they may come to understand the perceptions and angles they have been obsessed by, and hence change any persistently unrealistic and inflexible thinking on their part. Moreover, such readers may be comforted by recognizing that they are part of a community of affect, as they find out how similar problems bedevil others as well as themselves. 2 A rapid survey of the self-help shelves in my local bookshop suggests that, after careers, love relationships are probably the best-selling topic of advice. Like myself, most prospective buyers were lurking and flicking -half-abashed, half-fascinated -through titles like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, The Complete Book of Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right, and He's Just Not that Into You: the No-excuses Truth toUnderstanding Guys, excusing ourselves in part by also skimming parody versions, such as 1 For surveys of some of these approaches, see M.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Sullivan¹

2023

Shakespeare Survey 76

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Esta clase de narrativa pone toda la responsabilidad en uno mismo y niega la influencia de las estructuras sociales y además soporta esa atribución de responsabilidad al individuo, en sus versiones más sofisticadas, no solo en la promesa de cambio sino en el "expertise" seudocientífico del autor (Woodstock, 2006); es una variación de un viejo recurso según el cual todos los problemas del mundo son problemas de comunicación -nunca de intereses-y por tanto todos los problemas se resuelven con comunicación (Woodstock, 2007), sin perjuicio de que con frecuencia las discrepancias proceden, al menos parcialmente, de malentendidos. El despliegue de recursos retóricos para construir persuasión en la literatura de autoayuda es notorio (Koay, 2019) y de gran utilidad para el "spin doctor" 22 . La corrupción no tiene lugar en el mundo, porque en realidad, no es necesaria: "willpower" y comunicación son suficientes.…”

unclassified

Autoeficacia, corrupción administrativa y corrupción política

Nuñez¹

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper we analyze the relationship between self-efficacy, social capital, corruption experience, treatment of officials and attribution of corruption. The link between cultural capital and social capital is recovered and it is analyzed how both together filter communication and experience and contribute to the perception of corruption of officials and politicians. A PLS-PM model is constructed with these theorized relationships and validated with data from a study carried out in Spain in 2007.

show abstract

Addresser-Addressee Interaction Strategies in Non-fictional Discourse

Rudenko

Marchenko

2023

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Persuasion in Self-improvement Books

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Autoeficacia, corrupción administrativa y corrupción política

Addresser-Addressee Interaction Strategies in Non-fictional Discourse

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About