Toxic Literacies: Exposing the Injustice of Bureaucratic Texts

by Denny Taylor

"Official documentation" hides human rights violations in this country. Men, women, and children are incapacitated by legally sanctioned discriminatory practices that occur through the use of bureaucratic texts such as laws, court transcripts, medical reports, insurance policies, and work orders. Based on a six-year ethnographic study, Toxic Literacies tells the story Bureaucratic texts control the lives of men and women-Cindy, Sam, Laurie, Kathryn, people we pass on the street every day-living on the margins of American society. In Toxic Literacies , Denny Taylor explains how we allow this to happen and makes a compelling case for it to stop.

244 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 1996

About the author

Denny Taylor is a researcher and novelist who regards art, literature, and science inseparable. She is a lifelong activist and scholar committed to nurturing the imagination and human spirit. She has received both national and international awards for her research and scholarship.

She has published thirteen books, is the recipient of the Modern Language of Association of America Mina P. Shaughnessy Award, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2004 she was inducted in the International Reading Association's Reading Hall of Fame.

She is Professor Emeritus of Literacy Studies at Hofstra University, and the founder of Garn Press.