Traversing Old and New Literacies: The Undead Book and Other Assemblages

Description

This book re-examines the field of New Literacy Studies and promotes a shift away from binary constructions of literacies as 'old' or 'new' and to encourage critical reflection on the part of readers as to the uses of these constructs.  First, the book examines the entanglement of pasts, presents and futures in contemporary literacy practices. Second, it considers representations of literacies as actors, having their own power and consequences. Third, it critically examines the place of 'new' and 'old' literacies in a marketplace in which social, economic and political power advantage is contested.  The book demonstrates the use of assemblage theory drawing on semiotics, geo-semiotics and Actor Network Theory for analyzing literacies as assemblages. It provides readers with tools of analysis with which to interrogate claims made for the value of literacy, innovations and traditions alike. It also discusses implications for literacy policy, curriculum, teacher education and research. Preface: What was New Acknowledgement of Country Contents Abbreviations List of Figures 1 Assembling Literacies: Beyond Binaries Introduction A Genealogical Approach Time and Space Actor-Networks Representations and Attachments The Case The Book 2 Where is the Time? Temporality in Literacy Assemblages Introduction: Young Edwin the Time Traveller Assemblage Analysis Time as a Mode Timescales A Time of Transition Time–space Time–space and Semiotics Time–Space in Cultural Context The Past in the New: Multiple Timescales in a Digital Game Whose History? Layering Time and Space in Assemblage Analysis 3 Dividing Ourselves from the Past: The Constitution of ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Literacies Introduction The Case of a Change Narrative Uses of the Old: Fossil Classroom Images in Texts of Innovation Opening up Alternatives: Viewing Against the Grain Establishing Priority: Challenging the New Reclaiming the Garden Contesting Origins Alternative Histories: Local and Personal Conclusion 4 The Undead Children’s Book and the Persistent ‘Bedtime’ Story Introduction 2. ‘I Can Never Recall That’: The Bedtime Story as Innovation Story Reading on children’s Television Online Story Reading in Lockdown Social Media Reading Stars Cultural Localisation of Online Story Reading Conclusion: Traversing Old and New Shared Reading Practices 5 By Virtue of Association: The Precarious and Resilient Library In a Tight Place Histories of Risk The Library as Capital The Library as Actor-Network Associating with Commerce Build It and They Will Come: Libraries and Town Creation ‘Not the Selling Side’: The Library as Partner in Commerce Return of the Market: Libraries in Neoliberal Times Associating with Children The Children’s Reading Room Extending the Experience for Children Documenting Our Times: The Curatorial Library Curating the Pandemic Conclusion: Actors Undergoing Trials 6 A Powerful ‘Jumble’: Magazines Assembling the World for Children Introduction The Miscellaneous World of Early Children’s Magazines The Juvenile Miscellany: Early Edutainment for Children and Mothers The Children’s Hour: Integrating a Magazine into Curriculum Fostering Acts of Citizenship Race, Culture, and Language in Children’s Magazine Risks of Dissent Maintaining Cultural and Linguistic Identities Local Language Publishing and Children’s Magazines in Franco’s Spain Majid: A Pan-Arabic Magazine for Connected Children The Magazine: An Assemblage for Assembling Childhoods 7 Healthy Literacies: Old and New Literacy Hygienes Introduction Medicalising Early Literacy Clinic-Based Early Literacy Promotion Measuring Literacy Through the Clinic The Language Nutrition Movement Keeping the Medical Health-Literacy Assemblage Together Ministering to the Mind: Reading as Therapy Reading and (Dis)equilibrium The Adolescent as Bibliotherapeutic Subject ‘This Book Can Help’: Selling Bibliotherapy to Parents The Book in Health-Literacy Assemblages: Medical, Therapeutic, and Commercial Logics 8 Tools and Times: Beyond the Technology Native/Immigrant Binary Introduction Designing Ourselves Out of the Binary Making the Design Shift The Multimodal Portfolio Digital and/or Material? Technical Challenges and Workarounds Technologies in Literacy Histories: My Text Timeline May’s Life with Devices Katie’s Retro Aesthetic Rhiannon’s Digital Disappointment Tools and Times: Beyond the Native/Immigrant Binary 9 Children Telling Their Lifetimes: Temporality as a Resource for Meaning-Making Introduction ‘When I Grew Up’: Children Telling Their Lifetimes Hannah Connecting Personal and Family History Trent: A Big Boy Who is not Scared of Spiders Lockie at the Garage Sale: The Production of Value The Storied Object Accounting for Time: Children’s Event Descriptions and Explanations Retrospect and Prospect: Eddie’s Holiday Recurrence: Jack’s Soccer Season Conditionality: Crystelle on Marriage Rethinking Context in children’s Talk The Persistence of the Fairy Tale: Children’s Oral Narratives Conclusion 10 Cyborg Assemblages, Heritage Literacies, and Agendas for Literacy Research Active Assemblages Literacy Assemblages and Technologies Conceptualising Virtual/Material Co-production Recurrence Heritages Looking for Ways Innovation or Imitation? Interested Histories References Index