History of Literacy and Social Organization
Charles Bazerman Phelps 2313 x7543 bazerman@education.ucsb.edu
Student writing is situated within complex institutional, social, and intellectual arrangements which have resulted from prior elaboration of literate culture and which set the terms for our future information culture. The more deeply we look into the sociohistoric transformations which literate practices are part of, the more thoughtfully we can devise means for supporting contemporary practice.
This course will investigate the historical emergence and elaboration of literate practices and the implications for social organization and social practice in a world moving from oral to scribal to print to electronic media. This investigation will start with considering the interaction of literacy and social organization at earlier moments and will then consider some relevant theory to expose the ways text, social organization, and consciousness interact. We will then return to the rise and organization of academic, disciplinary, professional, and information culture. Each participant in the seminar will be responsible for sharing in the reading reports, writing weekly comments, preparing a portfolio of comments, and developing a project examining socio-cognitive discursive practices within a classroom, disciplinary, professional, or cyber-information domain.
Books on Order at CAMPUS STORE:
Jack Goody. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge UP 1986. ISBN 0-521-33962-6
David Olson & Nancy Torrance. The Making of Literate Societies. Blackwell, 2001. ISBN 0-631-22743-1
Jean Furgeson Carr, Stephen Carr & Lucille Schutz. Archives of Instruction . SIUP 2005. ISBN 0-8093-2611-6
Reader at ASSOCIATED STUDENTS (near Multi-Cultural Center)
Weekly Topics and Readings
1. 9/28 Earliest Writing
ALL: Denise Schmandt-Besserat & Michael Erard. "Origins and Forms of Writing"
Brian Gabrial. "History of Writing Technologies"
Literacy: An International Handbook . Daniel Wagner, Richard Venesky & Brian Street, eds. Oxford: Westview 1999.
Paul Saenger. "History of Reading"
Daniel Resnick & Jay Gordon "Literacy in Social History"
2. 10/5 Effects of Literacy: Inscription, Cognition, and Society
ALL: Jack Goody, "Implications of Literacy." from Literacy: An International Handbook .
Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole, in Literacy pp . 123-137.
REPORTS Ellen Cushman, Barry Kintgen Barry Kroll and Mike Rose. Literacy. Bedford-St. Martins, 2001.
Walter Ong. "Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought." pp. 19-31
Jack Goody, "What's in a List?" pp. 32-51
David Olson, "Writing and the Mind," pp. 107-122
John Hayes, "New Framework," pp. 172-198
Patrick Dias et al. "Distributed Cognition at work," pp. 199-208.
3. 10/12 Literacy in One Community
ALL: Niko Besnier. Literacy, Emotion, and Authority. Cambridge UP, 1995. Chap 2, 3, 4
REPORTS: Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8
4. 10/19 The Word of God and the Word of Mammon
ALL: Jack Goody. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society , Chapters 1, & 2
Dorothy E. Smith and Catherine F. Schryer. " On Documentary Society"
Charles Bazerman. " The Writing of Social Organization and the Literate Situating of Cognition"
REPORTS: Goody, chapters 3, 4 & 5
5. 10/26 The Printing Press and Its Consequences
ALL: Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Chap 1-4
6. 11/2 Authorship, Democracy, the Press, and the Culture of News
ALL: Michael Schudson. "Three Hundred Years of the American Newspaper." The Power of News. Harvard University Press, 1995. pp. 37-52.
Martha Woodmansee. "On the Author Effect: Recovering Collectivity." The Construction of Authorship . ed. Woodmansee and Jaszi. Duke University Press, 1994. pp. 15-28
REPORTS: Mark Rose. Authors and Owners. Harvard University Press, 1993. Chapters 1 & 2. pp. 1-30.
7. 11/9 Literacy and Culture in the U. S.
REPORTS: Janice Radway. "The Book of the Month Club and the General Reader." Reading in America. ed. Cathy Davidson. pp. 259-284.
Todd S. Gernes. "Recasting the Culture of Ephemera." Popular Literacy . Ed. John Trimbur. Pittsburgh UP, 2001. Pp.107-127.
Jamie Candelaria Greene. "Misperspectives on Literacy." in Literacy , pp. 234-243
Patrick Colm Hogan . "Writing as Art and Entertainment"
8. 11/16 Writing and Schooling in the U.S.
ALL: Jean Furgeson Carr, Stephen Carr & Lucille Schutz. Archives of Instruction . SIUP 2005.
REPORTS: E. Jennifer Monaghan. "Literacy and Gender in Colonial New England." Reading in America. ed. Cathy Davidson. pp. 53-80.
S. Michael Halloran. "From Rhetoric to Composition: The Teaching of Writing in America to 1900." A Short History of Writing Instruction . ed. James J. Murphy. Hermagoras Press, 1990. pp. 151-182.
9. 11/23 Literacy in Social Development
ALL: Olson & Torrance, Making of Literate Societies , Chaps 1, 2, 3, 16
REPORTS: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
11/30 No Class
10. 12/7 Presentations
Education 202E Fall 2005 Wed 9-11:50
History of Literacy and Social Organization
Denise Schmandt-Besserat & Michael Erard. "Origins and Forms of Writing"
Brian Gabrial. "History of Writing Technologies"
From: Daniel Wagner, Richard Venesky & Brian Street, eds. Literacy: An International Handbook . Oxford: Westview 1999
Paul Saenger. "History of Reading"
Daniel Resnick & Jay Gordon "Literacy in Social History"
Jack Goody, "Implications of Literacy"
From: Ellen Cushman, Barry Kintgen Barry Kroll and Mike Rose. Literacy. Bedford-St. Martins, 2001.
Walter Ong. "Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought." pp. 19-31
Jack Goody, "What's in a List?" pp. 32-51
David Olson, "Writing and the Mind," pp. 107-122
Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole, "Unpackaging Literacy," pp . 123-137
John Hayes, "New Framework," pp. 172-198
Dias et al "Distributed Cognition at work," pp. 199-208.
Dorothy E. Smith and Catherine F. Schryer. " On Documentary Society"
Charles Bazerman. " The Writing of Social Organization and the Literate Situating of Cognition"
Niko Besnier. Literacy, Emotion, and Authority. Cambridge UP, 1995. Chap 2, 3, 4.
Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge UP, 1983. Chap 1-4.
Michael Schudson. "Three Hundred Years of the American Newspaper." The Power of News. Harvard University Press, 1995. pp. 37-52.
Martin Conboy " Writing and Journalism"
Martha Woodmansee. "On the Author Effect: Recovering Collectivity." The Construction of Authorship . ed. Woodmansi and Jaszi. Duke University Press, 1994. pp. 15-28
Mark Rose. Authors and Owners. Harvard University Press, 1993. Chapters 1 & 2. pp. 1-30.
Janice Radway. "The Book of the Month Club and the General Reader." Reading in America. ed. Cathy Davidson. pp. 259-284.
Todd S. Gernes. "Recasting the Culture of Ephemera." Popular Literacy . Ed. John Trimbur. Pittsburgh UP, 2001.Pp. 107-127.
Jamie Candelaria Greene. "Misperspectives on Literacy." in Literacy , pp. 234-243
Patrick Colm Hogan . "Writing as Art and Entertainment"
E. Jennifer Monaghan. "Literacy and Gender in Colonial New England." Reading in America. ed. Cathy Davidson. pp. 53-80.
S. Michael Halloran. "From Rhetoric to Composition: The Teaching of Writing in America to 1900." A Short History of Writing Instruction. ed. James J. Murphy. Hermagoras Press, 1990. pp. 151-182.