Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : Oprah Winfrey as subject and spectacle / Jennifer Harris and Elwood Watson -- Oprah Winfrey and race. The specter of Oprah Winfrey : critical black female spectatorship / Tarshia L. Stanley -- My mom and Oprah Winfrey : her appeal to white women / Linda Kay -- The "Oprahization" of America : The man show and the redefinition of black femininity / Valerie Palmer-Mehta -- Oprah Winfrey on the stage. Oprah Winfrey and women's autobiography : a televisual performance of the therapeutic self / Eva Illouz and Nicholas John -- From fasting toward self-acceptance : Oprah Winfrey and weight loss in American culture / Ella Howard -- Spiritual talk : The Oprah Winfrey Show and the popularization of the new age / Maria McGrath -- Oprah Winfrey and spirituality / Denise Martin -- Phenomenon on trial : reading rhetoric at Texas beef v. Oprah Winfrey / Jennifer Richardson -- Oprah Winfrey on the page. Oprah's book club and the American dream / Malin Pereira -- Some lessons before dying : gender, morality, and the missing critical discourse in Oprah's book club / Roberta F. Hammett and Audrey Dentith -- Making corrections to Oprah's Book club : reclaiming literary power for gendered literacy management / Sarah Robbins -- Knowing for sure : epistemologies of the autonomous self in O, the Oprah magazine / Marjorie Jolles -- Oprah Winfrey's branding of personal empowerment / Damiana Gibbons -- "What is Africa to me?" : The Oprah Winfrey leadership academy / Jennifer Harris.