Writing superheroes

Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy

Bibliographic Data

ID24195944
AuthorsAnne Haas Dyson (0009-0002-1327-3262)
Year1997
Pages249
Publication date1997-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueWriting superheroes (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherTeachers College Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1604/9780807736395
Open LibraryOL656404M
ISBN9780807736395
LanguageEN
Citations received148

Based on an ethnographic study in an urban classroom of 7- to 9-year olds, Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy examines how young school children use popular culture, especially superhero stories, in the unofficial peer social world and in the official school literary curriculum. In one sense, the book is about children "writing superheroes"--About children appropriating superhero stories in their fiction writing and dramatic play on the playground and in the classroom. These stories offer children identities as powerful people who do battle against evil and win, but they also reveal limiting ideological assumptions about relations between people - boys and girls, adults and children, people of varied heritages, physical demeanors, and social classes. The book, then, is also about children as "writing superheroes." With the assistance of their teacher, the observed children became superheroes of another sort, able to take on powerful cultural storylines. In this book, Anne Dyson examines how the children's interest in and conflicts about commercial culture give rise to both literacy and social learning, including learning how to participate in a community of differences.

Case studies · Child development · Composition and exercises · English language · English language, composition and exercises · English language, study and teaching (elementary) · Multicultural Education · Popular Culture · Social aspects · Study and teaching (Primary) · united states