WRITING AND IDENTITY

Prof. Roz Ivanic

There is a rather interesting teacher, Professor Roz Ivanic (Emeritus Professor at Lancaster University) who has written a book entitled:

Writing and Identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing (Studies in Written Language and Literacy)

In her lecture on Writing as a Social Practice she states:

Writing as a social practice can be understood as several layers embedded in each other: writing is multimodal text; writing is a cognitive and creative process; writing is a physical and material process; writing is situated, purposeful social interaction; and writing is culturally, politically and historically located. "Power-relationships affect [...] what counts as good writing in particular social contexts".

That writing is situated, purposeful social interaction and is culturally, politically and historically located, is, in my view, made clear by the very nature of the ‘signs’ displayed throughout the environment; in particular on streets and in and around the cities in which we live. By ‘sign’, I include all forms or modes writing. They make up the building blocks of our sense of place. Through them we identify and understand where we come from and where we are. Living where we live, we inevitably participate in the making/writing of these signs. We cannot help but interact, and whether we like it or not, we cannot help but be culturally, politically and historically located.

Just a thought to be going on with.

This is a piece recently put on YouTube and not much looked at. It is, apparently, on subject and I like her.