Bare Writing: Comparing a Multiliteracies Theory and a Nonrepresentational Theory Approach to a Young Writer

• In Event: 66.080 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 66.080-13 - Multiliteracies and Multimodal Approaches to Young Adult Authors

Abstract

The New London Group radically expanded the notion of literacy. In the same spirit of expansion and multiplicity, I propose that we again broaden the boundaries of literacy by considering the affective and embodied nature of literacies. To make a case for such an expansion, I analyze a virtual ethnographic case study employing two separate theories: the New London Group’s Multiliteracies Theory and the poststructural framework of Non-Representational Theory. These side-by-side analyses highlight that which is illuminated and obscured by each approach as a gesture towards suggesting an even more inclusive theoretical apparatus to be used in the study of literacies. In so doing space is made for more texts, more things, and more people to enter into literacy together.

Author

• Amanda Smith, Michigan State University