On the Social Consequences of Literacy

Kate Vieira University of Wisconsin–Madison

Abstract

What are the consequences of literacy? I would like to know the answer. And I believe Composition Studies is an ideal disciplinary space from which to approach it. Some of us may make use of ethnographic methodologies, but we are not shackled to anthropological debates. Our unit of analysis is not culture, at least not centrally, but writing—how it happens, what it means, where it circulates, how it accomplishes its goals, whom it advances, whom it leaves behind, what it is worth and why. These processes entail the social, but do not require us to pin it down and watch it wriggle. Our attention can be more centrally trained on literacy.There are consequences to literacy—large ones and, my own fieldwork suggests, often troubling ones. Can we explore them without dividing the world into oral and literate, without having to take on debates that are not of our moment, and without sacrificing the crucial insights of New Literacy Studies? Are there new answers to old questions?

Journal
Literacy in Composition Studies
Published
2013-03-01
DOI
10.21623/1.1.1.6
CompPile
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
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Citation context

Cited by in this index (58)

  1. College Composition and Communication
  2. Literacy in Composition Studies
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  7. Literacy in Composition Studies
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  11. Literacy in Composition Studies
  12. Literacy in Composition Studies
  13. Literacy in Composition Studies
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  21. Literacy in Composition Studies
  22. Literacy in Composition Studies
  23. Literacy in Composition Studies
  24. Literacy in Composition Studies
  25. Literacy in Composition Studies
  26. Literacy in Composition Studies
  27. Literacy in Composition Studies
  28. College Composition and Communication
  29. College Composition and Communication
  30. Literacy in Composition Studies
  31. Literacy in Composition Studies
  32. Literacy in Composition Studies
  33. Literacy in Composition Studies
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     ↗
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     ↗
  26. Brandt, Deborah, and Katie Clinton. “Limits of the Local: Expanding Perspectives on Literacy as a Social Prac…
     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
  37. Haas, Christina.Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy.Mahwah: Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Print.
     ↗
  38. Heath, Shirley Brice.Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms.New York: Cambri…
     ↗
  39. Hull, Matthew.Government of Paper: The Materiality of Bureaucracy in Urban Pakistan.Berkeley: U of California…
     ↗
  40. Kafka, Ben. “The Demon of Writing: Paperwork, Public Safety, and the Reign of Terror,” Representations 98 (20…
     ↗
  41. Kalmar, Tomás Mario.Illegal Alphabets and Adult Biliteracy: Latino Migrants Crossing the Linguistic Border. M…
     ↗
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     ↗
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     ↗
  47. Sarroub, Loukia.All American Yemeni Girls: Being Muslim in a Public School.Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P,…
     ↗
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     ↗
  49. ---. “What's ‘New’ in New Literacy Studies? Critical Approaches to Literacy in Theory and Practice.”Current I…
     ↗
  50. Torpey, John.The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State.New York: Cambridge UP, …
     ↗
  51. Young, Morris.Minor Re/visions: Asian American Literacy Narratives as a Rhetoric of Citizenship.Carbondale: S…
     ↗