Good gossip /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c1994.
Description:vi, 215 p. ; 23 c.m.
Language:English
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1603996
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Goodman, Robert F.
Ben-Zeʼev, Aharon
ISBN:0700606696 (alk. paper) : $35.00
070060670X (pbk : alk. paper) : $14.95
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Review by Choice Review

These 15 articles by 22 authors on the moral, epistemological, social, and psychological functions of gossip, although written from a number of different perspectives, all address "the question of whether gossip is a good or bad thing," with the general aim of raising our appreciation for the positive aspects of gossip. The book has three sections: the first deals with the moral issues surrounding gossip; the second attempts to understand how gossip transmits knowledge and why this mode of transmission might be both trustworthy and socially efficacious; the third is a set of empirical studies on the social and psychological functioning of gossip. Some of the articles explore gossip as a woman's mode of discourse and understand its general devaluation to be from a patriarchal perspective. In sum, this is an important examination of a significant mode of social discourse and an attempt to reorient our evaluation of that discourse. Recommended for undergraduate libraries, but appropriate for graduate students also.

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review