History 585
HIST 585
546
Denney Hall
Winter 2006 T,Th
9:30-11:18 pm Graff.40@osu.edu
Office hours: T,Th
292-5838
1:30-2:30 & appointments
The story and the discourse
of literacy was once a simple, positive narrative, at least until recent times.
Although reading and writing could be seen as complicated activities, their
advancement and their contributions to people and nations were not. In recent
years our understanding of literacy and its relationships to ongoing societies,
cultures, and social change has been challenged and revised. The challenge came
from many directions. The “new literacy studies,” as they are often called,
attest to major shifts in approaches and knowledge, and a search today for new
understandings. Many traditional notions about literacy and its presumed
importance no longer influence scholarly and critical conceptions. The gap that
too often exists between scholarly and more popular and applied conceptions is
a major problem. It is one of the topics we will consider. It often includes
the topics of schools and policy.
Among other important
currents, historical scholarship and critical theories stand out, by themselves
and together. Historical research on literacy has been unusually important in
encouraging a reconstruction of the fields that contribute to literacy studies,
the design and conduct of research, the role of theory and generalization in
efforts to comprehend literacy and, as we say increasingly, literacies
(plural). Drawing on a number of disciplines, it has insisted on new
understandings of “literacy in context,” including historical context, as a
requirement for making general statements about literacy, and for testing them.
It carries great implications for new critical theories—literary, rhetorical,
and discursive—that reflect on literacy.
This course considers these
and related changes. Taking a historical approach, we will seek a general
understanding of the history of literacy mainly but not only in the West since
classical antiquity, with an emphasis on the early modern and modern eras. At
the same time, we examine critically literacy’s contributions to the shaping of
the modern world and the impacts on literacy from fundamental historical social
changes. Among many topics, we will explore communications, language,
expression, family and demographic behavior, economic development, urbanization,
institutions, literacy campaigns, political and personal changes, and the uses
of reading and writing. A new understanding of the place of literacy and
literacies in social development is our overarching goal.
Objectives
The course has a number of goals:
·
learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas,
arguments, and interpretations, and practicing analysis and critical evaluation
·
developing and practicing skills in written and oral
expression
·
engaging in an interdisciplinary conversation about
literacy studies, including but not limited to the historical study of literacy
and critical approaches to literacy/ies followed in different disciplines and
professions
·
developing new understandings of literacy’s many and
complicated roles and connections in the development of modern societies,
cultures, polities, and economies
·
comparing and evaluating different approaches,
conceptualizations, theories, methods, and sources that relate to the study and
understanding of literacy in its many contexts
Assignments & Evaluation
a. Regular reading,
attendance, and preparation for each class meeting. Attendance and
participation are expected and taken into account in evaluation.
b. Writing weekly questions
for discussion by working groups and sometimes the entire class. Questions
should be based on that week’s reading, and can include connections to earlier
weeks. Each student will turn in questions for at least four of the first eight
weeks.
c. Depending on the size of the class, groups may be responsible for leading one or more seminar sessions.
There may also be opportunities to work on Graff’s Literacy Studies @OSU “initiative”
a, b, & c together=25% of final grade
d. 2 4-5 page (double-spaced) critical essays
Each paper=25%; 2papers=50% Due on weeks 4-5 & 8-9
Improvement on second paper is taken into account
Paper 1. Drawing on a topic of your own choice from class
reading and discussions, critically explore the roles and power of
assumptions, expectations, and myths in the study, acquisition, practice, uses,
and understanding of literacy/ies. Be specific; use course materials;
define key terms. Consider the “issues to explore” for each week in the course.
Due in class: Week 4-5
Paper 2. Drawing on a topic of your own choosing from class
reading and discussions, critically explore the uses of history in the
study, practice, uses, acquisition, and understanding of literacy/ies. In
what ways do approaches and interpretations change? Why? What difference does
it make? Be specific; use course materials. Due in class: Week 8-9
Among
the many general topics to consider—in more specific terms--for either
paper are: literacy--myth, expectation, theory; literacy myths; literacy:
relationships, associations, consequences, meaning; theory and practice; uses
of literacy; uses of history; literacy in context(s); policy and practice in
history of literacy; many literacies; old literacy/ies v. new literacy/ies;
discourses of literacy; representations of literacy; alternative narratives of
change/history/evolutions with respect to literacy; future of literacy
e. group project: planning and carrying out an “active”
study of literacy in historical
perspective=25%
Working with members of your group, select one of several
possible approaches to or modes of research on literacy. The choices are
designed to take you, in part, outside the library or study and to provide an
intellectual experience that is more “active” (for lack of another term).
Consider these possibilities: 1) an ethnographic study of peoples’ uses and
practices of literacy, aimed at testing, comparing, or clarifying some
general ideas or hypotheses in the field of study; 2) surveys of
individuals’ (including your own, if you wish) own uses and evaluations of
reading and writing; for example, by keeping literacy or reading/writing
journals or diaries, then comparing a number of them, as the basis for your
interpretation or conclusions; 3) a study of the portrayals and
representations of reading and writing, and readers and writers in
literature, films, visual arts, popular and other cultures; 4) a study of the
place(s)—physical, cultural, psychological, etc.--of reading and writing in
U.S. (or possibly, other) culture(s). There are other possible projects too
including more traditional research projects. In each, consider your research
and your conclusions with the historical perspective taken from this course.
Each group will define a topic and propose an approach to
it. Brief research proposals of 2 pages will be circulated (with a copy to the
instructor) around the middle of the quarter, with brief presentations to the
class for comments and questions. We may schedule sessions with the Library or
the Digital Union. During the final two weeks, fuller presentations will be
made, with written reports due in Week 10:
outlines, bibliographies, critical reflections. There will be an opportunity to
evaluate group members’ contributions.
Assigned reading. An upper-level discussion course
is pointless, and painful, unless the participants have read the assigned
material with care. I expect you to read the material assigned for each week's
discussion. Copies of some readings are available on electronic reserve via the
Library. Plan ahead as necessary. I encourage you to think about useful
questions for discussion, or issues that occur to you after each class meeting.
Roles of learning groups
Groups will discuss readings and assignments;
generate questions for class discussion; report back to the class; brainstorm,
plan and conduct a research project; share sources and other “finds” with
classmates; prepare final presentations and written reports. Some class time
will be available for project work.
All
work that is turned in for evaluation or grading should be typed, usually
double-spaced, with margins of 1-1 ½ inches on all sides; printed in 12 point
font, in a legible typeface. Be sure that your printer ribbon or toner allows
you to produce clear copies. Follow page or word limits and meet deadlines.
Follow any specific assignment requirements (formatting or endnotes or bibliography,
for example). Use footnotes and endnotes as necessary and use them
appropriately according to the style guide of your basic field. Your writing
should be gender neutral as well as clear and to the point. If you have a
problem, see me, if at all possible, in advance of due dates.
Unacceptable work will be returned, ungraded, to you. Submitting work late
without excuse will result in lowered grades.
Mutual
respect and cooperation, during the time we spend together each week and the
time you work on group assignments, are the basis for successful conduct of
this course. The class is a learning community that depends on respect,
cooperation, and communication among all of us. This includes coming to class
on time, prepared for each day’s work: reading and assignments complete,
focusing on primary classroom activity, and participating. It also includes
polite and respectful expression of agreement or disagreement—with support for
your point of view and arguments--with other students and with the professor.
It does not include arriving late or leaving early, or behavior or talking that
distracts other students. Please turn off all telephones, beepers,
electronic devices, etc.
Scholastic honesty is expected and required. It is a major part of university life, and contributes to the value of your university degree. All work submitted for this class must be your own. Copying or representing the work of anyone else (in print or from another student) is plagiarism and cheating. This includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person’s work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person’s ideas.This is unacceptable in this class and also prohibited by the University. All cases of suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, must be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. For information on plagiarism, see http://cstw.osu.edu/ especially http://cstw.osu.edu/writing_center/handouts/index.htm.
All members of the OSU community are invited to discuss
their writing with a trained consultant at the
The Office for Disability Services, located in 150 Pomerene Hall, offers services for students with documented disabilities. Contact the ODS at 2-3307
Books:
David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology
of Written Language. Blackwell, 1993
(0-631-19091-0)
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the
Harvey J. Graff, The Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration
and Social Structure in the Nineteenth-
Deborah Brandt, Literacy in American Lives.
Sapphire, PUSH Vintage, 1997 (1996)
Other readings: journal articles and book chapters are available
from Library Electronic Reserve
Films (tentative list):
“The
Return of Martin Guerre”
“The Wild Child”
“Children
and Schools in 19th Century
David
Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language.
(Blackwell,
1993), chaps 1-8 (sample)
*Harvey J.
Graff, “Literacy,
Myth, and Legacies: Lessons from the History of
Literacy,” in Graff, The Labyrinths of Literacy (exp. and
rev. ed.,
Issues to explore: what is literacy?
how do we think about literacy? why? what
differences it makes
Jan. 10,12 Week 2 In another beginning: Literacy and the question of origins:
ancient foundings, ideas, traditions & practices; Transitions to literacy
David
Barton, Literacy , chaps 8-14
*Eric A. Havelock, “The
Coming of Literate Communications to Western
Culture,” Journal
of Communication, 30 (1980), 90-98
Issues to explore: literacy’s
origins and powers, including the powers of origins;
literacy’s history in theory and in
fact [sic]: finding and probing narratives of literacy; ancient or classical literacy as foundation? peak? standard?
Jan. 17,19 Week 3 Literacy and culture(s): From ancient foundings, traditions, and practices to medieval and early modern transitions to literacy: From script to print, oral to written, classical to vernacular, among other familiar, formulaic transformations of literacy in the passages from traditional to modern
*Michael
T. Clanchy, “Literate and illiterate: hearing and seeing:
1066-1307,” in Literacy and Social Development in the West, ed.
Harvey J. Graff (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 1981) 14-45 [From
Memory
toWritten Record:
175-191, 202-220]
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the
“The Return of Martin
Guerre” (123)
Issues to explore: lexicon
and lesson in the narratives and theorizations of literacy-- formulas for great changes—from oral to
written, written to printed; classical to vernacular,
sacred to secular; credo to ideology; elite to popular cultures; restricted to mass . . . among asserted transformations in
the passages from traditional to modern; technologies;
associations and correlates of literacy
Jan. 24,26 Week 4 Between traditional and modern; Ideological origins of modern western literacy—16th-19th centuries
1st
assignment due
Carlo
Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, second half
Harvey J. Graff, The
Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration and Social Structure
in the
Graff, The Literacy
Myth, chs. 1-6
*Janet
Cornelius, “We Slipped and Learned to Read: Slave Accounts of the Literacy Process, 1830-1860,” Phylon
44 (1983) 171-186,
“Children and Schools in
19th Century Canada” (
Issues to explore: literacy & social,
cultural, economic, and political change—theory v. experience; institutions
& ideologies; relations and consequences: slavery, equality, democracy,
citizenship, religion or belief, & literacy; class, race, gender,
ethnicity, generation, geography, & literacy: literacy in the making
of modern social relations, social structures, political systems
Graff, The Literacy
Myth, chs. 6-7
Select at least one:
*Helen
Horowitz, “Nous Autres:
Thomas,”
Journal of American History 79 (1992), 68-95
*Barbara
Sicherman, “Sense and Sensibility: A Case Study of Women’s Reading in
Late-Nineteenth-Century America,” in Reading in America, ed.
Cathy N. Davidson (JHUP, 1989), 201-225
*Jan
Radway, “Interpretive Communities and Variable Literacies,” Daedalus 113
Summer
1984), 49-73
“My
Brilliant Career” (101)
Deborah Brandt, Literacy
in American Lives. (
Sapphire, PUSH (Vintage, 1997 [1996])
Feb. 21,23 Week 8 The twentieth century in historical context: Myths of decline & the future of literacy/ies
2nd
assignment due
Deborah Brandt, Literacy
in American Lives,Chs. 4-Conclusion
Sapphire,
PUSH (Vintage, 1997 [1996])
Issues to
explore: rising or declining literacy levels or standards; threat or fear of illiteracy; technological imperatives;
changing means of expression and modes of communication;
keeping up, getting ahead, or falling behind; shifting needs and standards--how to tell & what
differences it makes
Group
projects/presentations
Optional reading for Weeks 9 & 10. These works may be useful in your group projects, or serve as additional readings for today and tomorrow.
Andrea A. Lunsford, Helene Moglen,
and James Slevin, eds., The Right to Literacy (MLA, 1990),
Introduction, sample other chapters
New London Group, “A Pedagogy of
Multiliteracies designing Social Futures,” in Multiliteracies:
Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures, ed. Bill Cope and Mary
Kalantzis (Routledge, 2000), 9-37 (also Harvard Educational Review, 1996)
Geoffrey Nunberg, “The Places of
Books in the Age of Electronic Reproduction,” in Future Libraries, ed.
R. Howard Bloch and Carla Hesse (
Carla Hesse, “Books in Time,” in The
Future of the Book, ed. Geoffrey Nunberg (
Colin Lankshear and Peter L.
McLaren, eds., Critical Literacy: Politics, Praxis, and the Postmodern
(SUNY Press, 1993), 1-56
Ira Shor, Empowering Education:
Critical Teaching for Social Change (
Ramona
Fernandez, Imagining Literacy. Texas 2001
Sonja
Lanehart, Sista Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy Texas 2002
Group
projects/presentations
Note: *=required reading, available from
Library Reserve