Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy

Bronwyn T. Williams is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville. His publications include the books Tuned In: Television and the Teaching of Writing and the edited collection Composing Identities: Literacy and Power in Higher Education. Amy Zenger is an Assistant Professor of English at the American University of Beirut. Her essays have appeared in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing and Rhetoric Review.

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter One: Literacy in Everyday Life, Literacy on the Screen; Section I. Representations of Literacy and Identity; Chapter Two. The Pragmatic and the Sentimental: Literacy and Gender Roles; Chapter Three: Who's Allowed to Read and Write? Literacy and Social Class; Chapter Four: Writing Others: Literacy and Race; Section II. Literacy and Social Contexts; Chapter Five: Control and Action: Literacy as Power; Chapter Six. The Ambiguity of Texts: Literacy as Danger; Section III: Literacy Myths in the Movies; Chapter Seven: The Passions of the Romantic Author: Literacy as Individualism; Chapter Eight: The Triumph of the Word: Literacy as Salvation and Commodity; Chapter Nine: Life is Not Like the Movies (Or Is it?): Literacy on Film and in Our Lives; References; Filmography; Index