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A new critical framework for Azorean-American storiesJanet C. Machado Eldred, University of Kentucky

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Perhaps a better term is simply

‘oral narratives,’ narratives that were told from

generation to generation and not written or published.”

+Preview

Introduction: Why Literacy Narratives? New Literacy Studies

Azorean-Americans & Literacy Narratives The Egg in the Water

Glass

Hidden Interlocutors: Ghostly Voices

Bifocal Literacy & Narrative Psychology

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Why Literacy Narratives?

+Graff, The Literacy Myth, 1991

+Stuckey, The Violence of Literacy, 1991

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Reading Literacy Narratives (Eldred & Mortensen, 1992)

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Azorean-American Literacy

+De Sá & Borges, 2009

Portuguese immigrants have “the lowest educational levels of any [European] immigrant group arriving between 1899 and 1910, and updates for subsequent generations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have shown little change.”

+De Sá & Borges, 2009

+The Literacy Voice

+The Egg in the Water Glass,2006

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Hidden Interlocutors—Ghosts

+M.M. Bakhtin, trans. 1982

+Literacy Ghosts: Glimpse, Identify, & Analyze

+The Egg in the Water Glass,2006

+Elmano Costa, Intro

“The story …is captivating because it is not a remarkable story (thousands of Californians of Portuguese heritage will find similarities to their family history. . .”

+The Xenophobic Ghost

+Fragmented, Haunted Commnity

+Emigrar para voltar

+Literacy & the ghost of remigration

+Patriotism & fidelity

+Bifocality & biliteracy

“I was trying to achieve renewal through reading, but my dream made it clear that I needed to hear and speak that language that was buried deep in my mind”

+Bifocality & biliteracy

“As the service progressed, I sang and prayed in Portuguese until we reached The Lord’s Prayer. Without hesitation, I prayed in English. I was home in two cultures. I was emotionally whole again ”

+Wholeness?

“As the service progressed, I sang and prayed in Portuguese until we reached The Lord’s Prayer. Without hesitation, I prayed in English. I was home in two cultures. I was emotionally whole again ”

+Autobiographical “Re/Visions”

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Multiple Interlocutors—Ghosts to be glimpsed, named, and analyzed

+Summary

Literacy Narratives

Azorean-Americans & Literacy Narratives Assimilation Emigrar para voltar

Hidden Interlocutors: Ghostly Voices

Bifocal Literacy & Narrative Psychology

+Conclusion

Entertain the idea of a bifocal or multifocal self

Name the ghosts, the hidden interlocutors

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ConclusionReading literacy narratives can enrich our understanding of how intangible heritage forges identity

Work from multiple literacies rather than a Great Divide

Keep in mind that formal education can be divisive

Look for those places where the voices are loudest

What drives that volume?

Recognize that assimilation and transmigration produce different literacy scripts

Entertain the idea of a healthy bifocal or multifocal self

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Find the ghosts in intangible heritage