Past Tense, Present Perfect, Future Even Better: Positive Thinking in Contemporary American Literature

This thesis explores American literature of the last 25 years that has staged a debate with positive thinking—a century-old American self-help discipline—and the symbiotic relationship it has formed with neoliberal capitalism. I will connect positive thinking, along with its contemporary institutionalized form within positive psychology, to theories of neoliberal governmentality. I will be using the various short stories, novels, and poetry in this thesis to discover the multivalent implications, connotations, and applications of positive thinking as a term and a practice.