Abstract
This essay is an engagement with a series of propositions about literacy and reading in the United States: that large numbers of people struggle with what one might call narrative complexity; that they resolve such struggles by falling back onto narrative simplicities which, through a series of cultural preferences, congeal to produce much of the stuff of popular culture; that this condition and process is essentially what the varied critics—from left and right—of the culture of modernity were actually identifying, though from a largely normative, not empirical, standpoint; that what was being critiqued was essentially a condition formed by cognitive underdevelopment; and that we can actually explain this empirically by mining decades’ worth of research in reading and literacy studies, particularly in the context of childhood and social class. In short, this paper is an admittedly tentative step in an effort to build a bridge between two knowledge silos that have in part remained determinably apart—reading/literacy studies and cultural/critical theory. The essay also suggests that, in order to understand reading and literacy, it is important to begin to engage research in neuroscience, particularly that which suggests that the brain is actually not designed—in evolutionary terms—to read.
Highlights
In 2007, Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature
‘A lot of the boys have never read at all, and the library is only half used.’” Lessing adds: “We are in a fragmenting culture...where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance computers...” she points to the Internet “which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities...”
“Nearly half of all Americans ages 18- to 24 read no books for pleasure.”. This is a important point since there is a good deal of research evidence to suggest that it is reading that one does just for the pleasure of it, that is reading that is not required by work or school, that has a major impact on reading and literacy skills
Summary
In 2007, Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Her Nobel lecture in accepting the award is a reflection on Africa, on her life there and the memories of subsequent and frequent returns. ‘A lot of the boys have never read at all, and the library is only half used.’” Lessing adds: “We are in a fragmenting culture...where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance computers...” she points to the Internet “which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities...”. In her mind’s eye she goes back to Africa and describes a scene she witnessed:. Lying inside Lessing’s and Olson’s comments is a brew of normative judgments—what exactly is it to be “human”, “civilized”?—and empirical claims—language and literacy can achieve those ends, begging the attendant question, how?
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