Private Practices

First Published in 1994. The study of literacy no longer focuses solely on psychological processes. In the past ten years, literacy has been reconceptualized as a social practice, or rather as social practices that make up the fabric of daily life. Using an anthropological perspective, Private Practices examines the broad fictional reading of middle-class pre-teen girls, and offers fresh insights into the place of literacy, both at home and at school, in the construction of gender. The author provides a wealth of evidence to support the central assumption of the book: Gender is a cultural and social construction, not a biological given. Gender is something that people create while interacting with each other in all the practices of their daily lives, including their literacy practices. The book also provides critical analysis and commentary concerning the role that reading fiction plays in cultural reproduction. In the hope that deeper knowledge of literacy as a social practice will support social transformation and eventually social justice, the author suggests compelling reasons for the fact that girls read more fiction and different fiction than do boys.

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