"You Can Be an Agent of Change": The Rhetoric of New Age Self-Help in Enlightened. Issue 1 (1st January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Young, Stephanie L.; Reynolds, D'Arcy J.
• Is Part Of: Western journal of communication. Volume 81:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2017-01-01
• Subjects: New Age -- Popular Culture -- Self-Help -- Television -- Therapeutic Rhetoric; Oral communication -- Periodicals; 428.3
• DOI: 10.1080/10570314.2016.1231930
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-0314

Abstract

Abstract : Extending Cloud's (1998) work on the rhetoric of therapy and Payne's (1989a, 1989b) concept of therapeutic rhetoric, this essay explores discourses of New Age self-help on the HBO television series Enlightened . We argue that New Age self-help rhetoric is a form of therapeutic rhetoric that merges New Age spirituality with the American tradition of self-improvement. We critically examine the show's protagonist, Amy Jellicoe, who engages in New Age self-help rhetoric to enact an "agent of change" identity, and analyze how Enlightened praises and problematizes New Ageism's emphasis on social responsibility. Ultimately, this close textual analysis provides an in-depth look into how New Age tenets are represented in popular culture and the ways in which New Age self-help rhetoric simultaneously resists and reproduces neoliberal individualism within modern society.