Identity construction and perception : reading as knowing

Identity construction and perception : reading as knowing

Books and reading

Self

Winterson, Jeanette, 1959- Written on the body

Edwards, Courtney

2007

Baker, Marsha Lee

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf

manuscripts (documents)

Text

61703

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/61703

Limited to on-campus users

Reading offers learning opportunities that can either foster understanding, or perpetuate fear of difference. In an effort to illustrate how a reader's identities, identities both self- and socially-constructed, affect the reading experience, rhetorical theory is called upon to show how language use and identification affect, and are affected, by a reader's identities and context. Gender and sexuality are concepts used to illustrate the fluidity of identities that are often limited to either-or representations in texts. A novel, Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, provides an example of how texts, like this one, can invite readers into spaces where categories are un stable, and where readers can explore dynamic characters that challenge many already determined perspectives. This first-person account of a teacher/reader and her students underscores the need for awareness, awareness of the boundaries that exist between people and their ideas, and awareness of the labels that are often applied in service of the boundaries. All readers' identities are equally important considerations, as well as all other identities represented in texts- for teachers, students, and all other readers and writers. There is no one way, right or wrong, to read, to communicate, or to identify.

2014-10-13

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723

10373 KB(file size)

iii, 67 pages(pages)

Western Carolina University Restricted Electronic Theses and Dissertations