Literacy as Types of Identity

In the Hamilton article, I found the juxtaposition of Literacy as Accessory and Literacy as Defiance very interesting. Both of the explanations said that these two uses for literacy were about identity, about declaring something about oneself. The part that intrigued me and caught my attention was how, while they had that in common, it manifested in very different ways. It says that Literacy as Accessory is “images in which literacy signifies that a person has a particular status.” It’s using literacy as a way to establish or announce your position in society, using literacy to show off your status. By contrast, Literacy as Defiance is “images of oppositional literacy practices, such as graffiti, demonstrations and political protests.” This is a whole different type of declaration of identity. It is using literacy to show what you stand for or what you believe in, or using literacy to break laws. I find literacy as a form of identity fascinating- how it can be used to show who you are as a person or how you want to be perceived. It can be from what you tell people you’ve read or what you hide reading.

Which transitions well into talking about the photograph I brought in. I took this picture a few months ago. In the photo, there is a stack of books, but the only one for which the title and author are somewhat visible is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The other three books could be anything. Which begs the question, did I do that on purpose? Am I only willing to admit own that particular book out of the four? The Great Gatsby is a famous novel, highly acclaimed, used in English classes everywhere. The way this photo uses books is more Literacy as Accessory than anything else. It could be seen as an announcement of sorts: “Look, I read books, look what kind of books I read and be impressed.” Additionally, the focus of the photo is not on the books, but on the cat. So to add another layer, it could be interpreted as a casual brag, like a namedrop almost: “Oh, I read, but it’s not a big deal or anything, I’m not showing off, I just read enough for it to not be a big deal.”

I didn’t mean to analyze this photo in such a way that made me seem pretentious and show off-y. In reality, the books were stacked that way arbitrarily and I just wanted another picture of my cat. Look how cute she is.