Writing Superheroes

by Anne Haas Dyson

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful ethnographic study of 2nd and 3rd graders learning how to write through the use of popular culture -- and their negotiations with identity, power and community in the process. The teacher and students created a community where this was made possible!

[Osvaldo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing case study of how young children engage with and manipulate existing texts in their own play and writing, with a focus on superheroes like the X-men and the Ninja Turtles and how these texts play out in terms of gender.

Since this book is about elementary education it is not as useful to my work as I would like, but still examination of this creative phenomenon and attention to detail is commendable and has some relation to the identity work I am concerned with.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best book I've read by far this semester. Reading about how superheroes energize 2nd graders' writing...energized my writing. And makes me want to write stories about going to Pizza Hut with the X-Men, too.