The Anthropology of Writing: Understanding Textually Mediated Worlds

Description

We live in a textually-mediated world where writing is central to society, its cultural practices and institutions. Writing has been the subject of much research but it is usually highly visible and valued texts that are studied -- the work of novelists, poets and scholars. The studies included in this book examine every day acts of writing and their significance. Ordinary quotidian writing may be viewed as mundane and routine, but it is central to how societies operate and the ways individuals relate to each other and to institutions. Examples discussed in the book including writing in areas such as farming, photo-sharing, childcare work and health care. The chapters are united in their approach to examining this writing as cultural practice. The book also brings together two important traditions of this type of study: the Anglophone and Francophone. The work of French scholars in this field is made accessible for the first time to the Anglophone world. The insights and research in this collection will appeal to all linguists, anthropologists, sociolinguistics and cultural theorists.

Professor David Barton is Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University, UK Dr Uta Papen is Senior Lecturer in Literacy Studies at Lancaster University, UK.

"An invigorating collection. With fresh terminology and fascinating cross-cultural perspectives, this book takes contemporary literacy studies to a higher plane. Its timing couldn't be better." -- Professor Deborah Brandt, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, author of Literacy in American Lives