{"product_id":"telling-tales-9780719085222","title":"Telling tales","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book's broad-ranging and compelling narrative uses literary analysis to examine how identities are influenced within organisations by corporate communication and how they are resisted and challenged by writing coming from other lifestyles.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt claims workplace 'empowerment' is a rhetorical misrepresentation causing stress particularly to public sector employees whose personal identity and fulfillment relies on a quality of service defined by their professional occupations, which conflicts with calls for increasing quantity of output required by companies organised for 'fast, flexible and responsive' production. It proves this claim by reading identity through the language of labour expressed in other types of cultural communication - the novel, the writing of celebrity chefs and travel autobiographies - to show how psychological stress is alleviated when personal and occupational values are re-aligned, when work is conducted closer to the rhythms and re\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAngela Lait offers a brilliant analysis of the rhetoric of business-speak. This is a distinctive and important interdisciplinary contribution to analyses of the world of work.\u003cbr\u003eRichard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, New York University and the London School of Economics and Political Science\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLait uses a broad, interdisciplinary literary critique to highlight the intersection of \u003cbr\u003eindividual identity, popular literature and work alienation.\u003c\/p\u003e -- .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 Business\u003cbr\u003eI: Taking charge: management and self-management in a flexible culture\u003cbr\u003eII: Manuals of becoming: self-help for the failing\u003cbr\u003e2 Identity\u003cbr\u003eSink or swim: the dilemma of the failing middle-class professional\u003cbr\u003e3 Trauma \u003cbr\u003eIan McEwan’s Saturday: a tale of the vulnerable professional\u003cbr\u003e4 Escape\u003cbr\u003eHeaven, heroes and horticulture: the search for solace and meaning\u003cbr\u003e5 Recovery\u003cbr\u003eNarratives of becoming: slow working towards a better life-story\u003cbr\u003e6 Autobiography\u003cbr\u003eWriting the self\u003cbr\u003eConclusion \u003cbr\u003eThe meaning and value of self-mastery\u003cbr\u003eAppendices\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Manchester University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48884282786135,"sku":"9780719085222","price":68.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/telling-tales-9780719085222","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}