Final thoughts are tough. Mine are too scattered right now, and they are not as much thoughts as emotions so forgive me if this reflection is going to be a little disorganized. I always feel sad when a class comes to a closing, especially the class that grew on me as the semester progressed. I think this was a great class to start grad school with. It had a good theoretic base, with the readings being nicely balanced. As Antonia mentioned, there were some readings that read almost like prose; I, too, had enjoyed them immensely. Others, like Jack Goody’s text, left me dumbfounded. I really could NOT for the life of me understand what the author was talking about. But this is where the group work proved to be an excellent way to alleviate that; working in groups with other people who actually got (and especially did not get!) the reading, helped me come to peace with my inadequacies. It also helped bind us together, and rearranging the tables in the middle of the semester was a genius idea!
A bit more about the readings. The one that particularly stood out for me personally was Victoria Purcell-Gates’s Other People’s Words. Having grown up in a literate family and being surrounded by printed word since I was a child, I always took being able to read and write for granted. Therefore, it was shocking to realize, after having completed the book, that literacy is not present in some families’ lives at all. It is not a part of who they are. Some of them are okay with that, and I probably will never be able to understand how this is possible – but it is. And now that I think about it, in the beginning literacy was only the privilege of the rich or the clergy. Before the invention of the printing press, books were painstakingly copied by hand and therefore were not for a common man’s use. Johannes Gutenberg did humanity a great favor, indeed. After the printing press was invented, and with the advance of the Renaissance movement, literacy became more inclusive and democratic. Still and all, in today’s society there are still people who are not able to enjoy all the benefits being literate has to offer. Some of them, like Jenny and Donny, are not able to do that not because of their not wanting to do it, but because they are prevented from doing so. It seems that class antagonism is still alive and well, and I don’t see a reason why it should not be since prejudice has not gone anywhere.
Getting back to Other People’s Words, I feel that this book has humbled me by making me realize that literacy is not something that should be taken for granted. Other readings like Alberto Manguel’s A History of Reading game me an overview of the main print mediums and their development. And the visit to the Butler Library was probably the highlight of the course for me since I’m a major history buff, and I like to touch things :-) Barbara, I am also extremely grateful for the way you made us students interact with each other and insisted that we learned each other’s names. It made this class so much more personalized and enjoyable.
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