Browsing by Author "Dunne, Lindsay"

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    Beyond the sentimental text: the practice and pedagogy of critical literacy in Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird
    (2004) Dunne, Lindsay; Stadler, Gustavus
    Many readers and teachers approach Harper Lee's novel as a moral fable or self-interpreting text, because of its strong emotional appeal to readers. Beyond its sentimental surface, however, Lee's text both demonstrates and proposes a more expansive mode of critical reading. This essay traces the factors that affect the main character Scout in her development of critical literacy - a literacy of consciousness beyond the basic skills of reading and writing. Through her encounters with Maycomb's characters, her problematic interactions with her father Atticus, and her own social performances, Scout expands her ability to read both the written word and the texts of her social world, and consequently develops a sense of her own agency in response to a stifling social structure. As the narrator of her story, Scout constructs her text to advocate such active critical literacy.