Brandt bell hooks Malcolm X

Sponsors of Literacy Deborah Brandt

Brandts article included case studies that focused on

the development of literacies in individuals, but with an eye toward outside agents, i.e. sponsors or shaping forces (WAW). In addition to the narratives provided in the Brandt article, here is another example of a literacy history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWxbD3qtMwI

Free-writing exercise
Take about 5 minutes to free write about your own

literacy history, imitating what you heard in this students video. This will be helpful when you begin your group work for Project 2. I encourage you to develop your literacy narrative further from what you write down today, for your own information.

bell hooks Writing Autobiography

Autobiography as literacy history
What autobiographies have you read? What do you think autobiographies should contain?

What elements should be included to make it an autobiography This death in writing was to be liberatory (hooks 177). Whose death? What was writing for hooks? Literacy as freedom/survival: In what ways does this relate to Brandt?

Literacy Sponsors
If sponspors are shaping forces, what are some of the

sponsors in hookss piece? Secrecy and Silence (177): Parents/family controlled what she said. Sponsors are not always altruistic, but they always leave an impression.

Autobiography or Bio-mythography
How does bio-mythography differ from

autobiography? 178 [Memories] came in a surreal, dreamlike style that made me cease to think of them as strictly autobiographical because it seemed that myth, dream, and reality had merged (178). As I wrote, I felt that I was not as concerned with accuracy of detail as I was with evoking in writing the state of mind, the spirit of a particular moment

Memories and Literacy Histories

Youll be using your own memories and recollections

as well as others in Project 2. According to hooks, how reliable are memories? Even as Malcolm X relates his prison stay to Alex Haley, it is based on memory. What his account truthful? What does the act of writing down a memory do? What does it change for hooks? What did it change for you?

Writing memories
It had not occurred to me that bringing ones past,

ones memories together in a complete narrative would allow one to view them from a different perspective, not as singular isolated events but as part of a continuum (179). How does this relate to Scott McClouds mask concept? Writing down memories is one way of putting on the mask (McCloud) and seeing things from different perspectives.

From bell hooks to Malcolm X

Writing autobiographical narrative enabled me to

look at my past from a different perspective and to use this knowledge as a means of self-growth and change in a practical way (180). How did hooks grow or change in the process of writing her autobiography? Writing liberates hooks from her internal oppressor, what liberates Malcolm X from his external oppressor?

Malcolm X
hooks begins her story by wanting to change (kill, really)

an identity. Malcolm X begins this excerpt also by wanting to change his identity. What did he want to change about himself and why? If you dont know the answer, go to the text! 354 He could not reach the audience he wanted with his slang. Why is it important that he change his dialect? What are the implications of doing this? Brandt- awareness of rising literacy standards. Have you ever changed your dialect?

Malcom Xs Literacy Sponsors

One of the goals in this project is for you to be able to

name your own literacy sponsors, so name some of his sponsors Elijah Muhammad the Nation of Islam Norfolk Prison Colony Library- Parkhurst The Streets High School

Reappropriation/Misappropriation (Brandt)
What is reappropriation?
Did Malcolm X misappropriate the intentions of his

sponsors? Parkhurst books (history/religion) inadvertently led to enlightenment of one of the leaders of the Black Power Movement. Those books were intended to rehabilitate prisoners, not create revolutionaries!

Wrapping Up
Xs first book was the dictionary. What was your first

book? Can you relate to the domino effect- 1 book leading you to read another and so onthat Malcolm X experienced? I Imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that (Malcolm X 360). Thoughts on this comment? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgsh8KyWK8Y

Project 2 Work
Gather into your groups for Project 2.
Share your free-writing exercise and your own literacy

histories Look at the questions on page 460 under Assignment Option 2 and try to answer as many of these as you can. Sharing your lit. histories and answering these questions will lead you to some sort of theme that your group will explore.