Considers how although the influence of "Oprah's Book Club" has been well documented in the popular media, it has received little attention from the academic community. Examines the club as a literacy delivery system, asking how literacy takes its shape from the interests of both Winfrey and her readers. (SG)

Presents a dialogue between National Endowment for the Humanities chairman, Lynne V. Cheney, and Modern Language Association president, Catharine R. Stimpson. Presents their views on literary criticism, teaching and research, feminism, the future of the humanities, and the search for enduring values in a pluralistic society. Examines the idea of a…

Television has become such an important factor in our culture that it must be made a part of the educational curriculum if our free and democratic society is to survive. Those who know how to use the television medium are able to brainwash the rest of us easily, for most of us are television illiterates. The development of print literacy, opposed…

The adversarial forces of governmental censorship, freedom of expression, and capitalistic appropriation are engaged in an acrimonious debate over "Gangsta' Rap" that is being played out in the public spaces of popular culture. However, as a literacy of lived experience, Gangsta' Rap warrants critical investigation. Many postmodern…

In composition journals, graduate classrooms, and informal discussions among writing teachers, there is a lot of talk about liberation, empowerment, student voice, dialogue, critical thinking, and democratic teaching--the familiar tropology of critical pedagogy. This nomenclature seems to have permeated the field of composition, across theoretical…