| dc.description.abstract | Literacy theory, a multi-disciplinary, late-twentieth century endeavor, examines
the acts of reading and writing as cognitive and social processes, seeking to define the
relationship between reading and writing and other social and cognitive - especially
linguistic - acts. As such, literacy theory intersects with discussions of public and
individual education and reading habits that surface with the rise of the mass reading
public. This dissertation analyzes scenes of reading and writing in the fiction of Virginia
Woolf, E. M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley as implicit authorial
discourses on the function of literacy, including properties of written language and the
social consequences of literate acts. It argues that reading and writing form important
thematic concerns in Modernist fiction, defines fiction that theorizes about reading and
writing as "literacy fiction," and proposes fictional dramatizations of literate activity as
subjects for literacy theory.
Chapter I argues that early twentieth-century Britain is an important historical
site for intellectual consideration of literacy because near-universal access to education across social classes influences an increase in middle and working class readers.
Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway provides a test case for the analysis of scenes of reading because
her democratic concern with education is well established in the scholarly literature.
Chapter II argues that in "The Celestial Omnibus" and "Other Kingdom," Forster
critiques use of literacy as cultural capital. Chapter III argues that Forster's A Room with
a View and Howards End portray the dangers of naive reading and the difficulties of
autodidacticism for the working class, respectively. Chapter IV argues that Lawrence's "Shades of Spring" and Sons and Lovers introduce the theoretically unexplored topic of
literacy's influence on intimate relationships. Chapter V argues that Huxley's Brave
New World responds to the Modernist discourse on literacy by addressing the restriction
of individual literacy by the State and elite intellectuals. The conclusion summarizes
Modernist representation of literacy, states the significance of the methodology and its
further applications, and refines the definition of literacy fiction. Because Modernist
writers scrutinize the relationship between external forces and the individual psyche,
their anxiety-tinged portraits treat both cognitive and social functions of literate acts. | en |
