Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Sense)

Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres

This series explores in separate volumes major authors and genres through a critical literacy lens that seeks to offer students opportunities as readers and writers to embrace and act upon their own empowerment. Each volume will challenge authors (along with examining authors that are themselves challenging) and genres as well as challenging norms and assumptions associated with those authors' works and genres themselves. Further, each volume will confront teachers, students, and scholars by exploring all texts as politically charged mediums of communication. The work of critical educators and scholars will guide each volume, including concerns about silenced voices and texts, marginalized people and perspectives, and normalized ways of being and teaching that ultimately dehumanize students and educators.

Series Editor:

Paul Thomas, Furman University

Editorial Board:

Karen Stein, University of Rhode Island
Shirley Steinberg, McGill University, Montreal
Jeanne Gerlach, University of Texas-Arlington
Leila Christenbury, Virginia Commonwealth University
Renita Schmidt, Furman University
Ken Lindblom, Stony Brook University

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Rachel Carson

Challenging Authors

Karen Stein (University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA)

2012 | 212 pages

Subject: Environmental Education

Price: $ 39.00

Challenging Genres

Comics and Graphic Novels

Paul Thomas (Furman University, Greenville, USA)

2010 | 244 pages

Subject: Literacy

Price: $ 39.00

Rachel Carson - Challenging Authors - SensePublishers

Rachel Carson - Challenging Authors - SensePublishers

SF Volume Upcoming from Sense

Series: Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres

Sense Publishers

Challenging Genres: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction

P. L. Thomas, Editor

In-press late summer 2013

Table of Contents 

The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas

The New Politics of the Textbook: Critical Analysis in the Core Content Areas

Sense Publishers

Heather Hickman and Brad J. Porfilio (Eds.)

In an era when corporate and political leaders are using their power to control every aspect of the schooling process in North America, there has been surprisingly little research on the impact of textbook content on students. The contributors of this volume and its partner (The New Politics of the Textbook: Problematizing the Portrayal of Marginalized Groups in Textbooks) guide educators, school administrators, academics, and other concerned citizens to unpack the political, social, and cultural influences inherent in the textbooks of core content areas such as math, science, English, and social science. They urge readers to reconsider the role textbooks play in the creation of students’ political, social, and moral development and in perpetuating asymmetrical social and economic relationships, where social actors are bestowed unearned privileges and entitlements based upon their race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and linguistic background. Finally, they suggest ways to resist the hegemony of those texts through critical analyses, critical questioning, and critical pedagogies.

Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action Volume 2

ISBN 978-94-6091-929-9 hardback USD99/EUR90

ISBN 978-94-6091-928-2 paperback USD49/EUR45

July 2012, 368 pages

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NOW AVAILABLE: Politics, Participation & Power Relations

Politics, Participation & Power Relations: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Critical Citizenship in the Classroom and Community

Richard C. Mitchell
Brock University, Canada

and

Shannon A. Moore (Eds.)
Brock University, Canada

Until recently, youth have become the great absence regarding matters of citizenship, justice, and democracy. Rarely are young people taken up with the important discourses of freedom and citizenship, especially discourses that transcend national boundaries and academic disciplines.

Richard Mitchell and Shannon Moore have put together a brilliant book that not only fills this void, but makes one of the most powerful cases I have read for addressing young people in terms that not only allow them to talk back, be heard, but also to enjoy those rights and freedoms that give democracy a real claim on its ideals and promises. Every educator, parent, student, and all those young people now making their voices heard all over the world should read this book.

Henry A. Giroux

This diverse collection will appeal to students in senior undergraduate and graduate courses looking into the new cosmopolitanism in social policy, citizenship or cultural studies, in child and youth studies, and in post-colonial approaches to education, sociology, and political science.

Critical Issues in the Future of Learning and Teaching Volume 4

ISBN 978-94-6091-742-4 hardback USD99/EUR90

ISBN 978-94-6091-741-7 paperback USD39/EUR35

January 2012, 215 pages

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Forthcoming: Politics, Participation and Power Relations (Sense)

Forthcoming from Sense:

Politics, Participation and Power Relations: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Critical Citizenship in the Classroom and Community, R.C. Mitchell and S.A. Moore, Eds.

from intro:

"A contribution from US-based Paul Thomas of Furman University in South Carolina presents his theoretical reflection from the standpoint of growing up and teaching in the rural south arguing for the need of critical literacy, specifically in the writing curriculum, to foster critical citizenship."

Writing community: Composing as transformation and realization

Paul L. Thomas

New volume under contract at Sense

My next volume in my series at Sense will be:

-----. (under contract). Challenging genres: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction. Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Details (draft/updated):

Series: Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres

Volume: Challenging Genres: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction

P. L. Thomas

Final draft submission: December 15, 2012

Introduction

This introduction addresses the value of critical pedagogy and critical literacy for all students in any courses addressing literacy as a foundational introduction for both the series and this volume. Further, I will explore our assumptions about genre—how we assign and teach genre in our literature study, and how we assign and teach genre in our writing instruction. Finally, I will briefly introduce sci-fi/speculative fiction as a marginalized genre in comparison to literary fiction. In this introduction, I will define sci-fi, speculative fiction, and dystopian fiction along with confronting the problems posed by genre and medium

Chapter One

“A Case for Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction: A Brief History”

Sci-fi as a genre of fiction has often been marginalized, with a few works and writers allowed into the official canon, almost begrudgingly—Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood. But those sci-fi works tend to be embraced when the writers are also considered literary, leaving works and writers dedicated exclusively to sci-fi to a second-class status. This chapter examines what constitutes sci-fi as a genre and discusses the complex debate surrounding that classification, focusing on Atwood’s arguments about sci-fi, speculative fiction, and dystopian fiction. This chapter will also introduce a consideration of sci-fi/speculative fiction across several mediums—novels, short stories, film, and graphic novels.

Chapter Two

“Sci-Fi and Speculative Novels”

This chapter will discuss sci-fi/speculative fiction novels by focusing on major works representing the genre: Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I will examine both how these major works represent the genre as well as how to utilize these works in classrooms focusing on critical literacy and exploring multigenre/multimedium texts.

Chapter Three

“Sci-Fi and Speculative Short Fiction”

This chapter will discuss sci-fi/speculative fiction short stories by focusing on major works representing the genre—such as LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” and Vonneguts short stories, such as “Harrison Bergeron”—and works often taught in ELA courses. I will examine both how these major works represent the genre as well as how to utilize these works in classrooms focusing on critical literacy and exploring multigenre/multimedium texts. I will present and discuss how to use sci-fi short stories to build multigenre units of study.

Chapter Four

“Sci-Fi and Speculative Films and TV”

This chapter will discuss sci-fi/speculative fiction films and TV by focusing on major works representing the genre: Star Trek, Star Wars series, Blade Runner, Solaris, Alien series. I will examine both how these major works represent the genre as well as how to utilize these works in classrooms focusing on critical literacy and exploring multigenre/multimedium texts. Film and TV series as elements of adaptation of texts will also be examined.

Chapter Five

“Sci-Fi and Speculative Graphic Novels/Comics and Young Adult Literature”

This chapter will discuss sci-fi/speculative fiction graphic novels/comics by focusing on major works representing the genre: superhero comics (Superman, Batman, Spider Man, X-Men), American Flagg!, Ronin, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I will examine both how these major works represent the genre as well as how to utilize these works in classrooms focusing on critical literacy and exploring multigenre/multimedium texts. Graphic novels/comics as elements of adaptation of texts will also be examined.

Then, I will explore the sci-fi/speculative fiction works within the broader young adult fiction genre, focusing on YA classics and the more recent rise of the Hunger Games trilogy.

Chapter Six

“The Enduring Power of Sc-Fi, Speculative Fiction, and Dystopian Fiction”

Drawing from Atwood’s In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011), I will discuss contemporary works of sci-fi/speculative fiction such as Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, Perrotta’s The Leftovers, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go to detail the enduring power of the genre.

Conclusion

Sci-fi/speculative fiction as adaptation units will be the final discussion of the book, discussing the use of mutltigenre units in courses focusing on literacy and composition instruction.

Working References

Atwood, M. (2011). In other worlds: SF and the human imagination. New York: Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday.

Thomas, P. L. (2011, October 30). Le Guin's "The ones who walk away from Omelas”: Allegory of privilege. Daily Kos. Reposted at The Daily Censored (2011, November 3).

-----. (2011, October 20). Whence come The Leftovers?: Speculative fiction and the human condition. Daily Kos.

-----. (2011, January 3). Calculating the Corporate States of America: Revisiting Vonnegut's Player Piano. OpEdNews. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Calculating-the-Corporate-by-Paul-Thomas-110103-130.html

-----. (2007). Reading, learning, teaching Margaret Atwood. New York: Peter Lang USA.

-----. (2006). Reading, learning, teaching Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Peter Lang USA.

Vonnegut, K. (1974). Wampeters, foma & granfalloons. New York: Delta.

Call For Manuscript Proposals: Critical Literacy Teaching Series

Call For Manuscripts

Critical Literacy Teaching Series: 

Challenging Authors and Genres

Series Editor: P. L. Thomas, EdD, Furman University

Publisher: Sense

Kincheloe (2005) offers a foundational argument about the role of critical pedagogy in our classrooms:

[P]roponents of critical pedagogy understand that every dimension of schooling and every form of educational practice are politically contested spaces. Shaped by history and challenged by a wide range of interest groups, educational practice is a fuzzy concept as it takes place in numerous settings, is shaped by a plethora of often-invisible forces, and can operate even in the name of democracy and justice to be totalitarian and oppressive. (p. 2)

This series will explore major authors and genres through a critical literacy lens that seeks to offer students opportunities as readers and writers to embrace and act upon their own empowerment. Further, the volumes in this series are guided by Freire (2005) as well:

One of the violences perpetuated by illiteracy is the suffocation of the consciousness and the expressiveness of men and women who are forbidden from reading and writing, thus limiting their capacity to write about their reading of the world so they can rethink about their original reading of it. (p. 2)

We are seeking book-length manuscript proposals for volumes in this new series. Volumes may address individual authors or genres/media/modes of literature/texts; and may be either edited or single-author volumes.

Volume proposals may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Authors:
Sandra Cisneros (being drafted)
Louise Erdrich
Rachel Carson (in press)
Alice Walker
James Baldwin (under consideration)

Genres:
Comics/ graphic novels (published)
Young adult literature (being drafted)
Science fiction (in process)
Children’s literature
Poetry
Novels
Nonfiction

Send proposal ideas or questions about potential volumes to the series editor, P. L. Thomas, by email
(paul.thomas[at]furman.edu).

Series Editorial Board:
Karen Stein, PhD, University of Rhode Island
Shirley Steinberg, PhD, McGill University
Jeanne Gerlach, EdD, University of Texas-Arlington
Leila Christenbury, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University
Renita Schmidt, PhD, University of Iowa
Ken Lindblom, PhD, Stony Brook University