Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy (Routledge Research in Literacy)

Movies are filled with scenes of people of all ages, sexes, races, and social classes reading and writing in widely varied contexts and purposes. Yet these scenes go largely unnoticed, despite the fact that these images recreate and reinforce pervasive concepts and perceptions of literacy.

This book addresses how everyday literacy practices are represented in popular culture, specifically in mainstream, widely-distributed contemporary movies. If we watch films carefully for who reads and writes, in what settings, and for what social goals, we can see a reflection of the dominant functions and perceptions that shape our conceptions of literacy in our culture. Such perceptions influence public and political debates about literacy instruction, teachers' expectations of what will happen in their classrooms, and student's ideas about what reading and writing should be.

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.