Books by Timothy Aubry

For scholars invested in supporting or challenging dominant ideologies, the beauty of literature seemed frivolous, even complicit with social iniquities. Suspicion of aesthetics became a way to establish the rigor of one's thought and the purity of one's politics. Yet aesthetic pleasure never disappeared, Timothy Aubrey writes. It went underground.

Argues that contemporary fiction serves primarily as a therapeutic tool for lonely, dissatisfied middle-class readers, one that validates their own private dysfunctions while supporting elusive communities of strangers unified by shared feelings. Aubry persuasively makes the case that contemporary literature's persistent appeal depends upon its capacity to perform a therapeutic function.