Grassroots Literacy

In the age of globalisation, literacy develops into a multimodal and technologically organized set of practices. Part of globalization, however, is the fact that different parts of the world proceed at a different pace, and that new inequalities are generated that way. This book examines unique handwritten documents from Central Africa in which authors attempt to produce 'voice' - to make themselves understood as subjects who have a story to tell. The stories they tell are about their lives and the history of their country, and in the process they mobilize every available resource: linguistic, stylistic, genre and layout. All of these aspects are analysed from an ethnographic perspective, and the outcome is a story of people constructing their subjectivity while writing history. The documents and the particular analysis together create a unique book on 'writing in the margins'. The analysis lays bare the skeleton of literacy practices by focusing on writing done in conditions of economic and social marginalization, but within a context of globalization. Examining these documents, therefore, is of general relevance, both for understanding globalization and for understanding literacy.Blommaert, Jan is the author of 'Grassroots Literacy' with ISBN 9780415426305 and ISBN 0415426308.