Literacy Assemblages as Emergent Worldmaking: Understanding Fluid Identity Negotiation beyond Systemic Boundaries

• In Event: Literacies and Identity Negotiation Across Diverse Rural Spaces

Abstract

This paper explores fluid literacy assemblages in narratives of two Chinese rural students, highlighting agentive identity negotiation beyond systemic boundaries. Examining Yulou’s fa-dai—diffuse attention as meaning-making—and Mann’s dream-like storying—reading, writing, imagination interplay—the study reveals literacy as non-linear, emergent world-making that enabled resistance and fluid identity negotiations. This study calls for recognizing and valorizing the often-overlooked richness and power of marginalized students’ diverse literacy worlds.

Author

• Xuanya Zhou, University of Florida