The World is a Text: The Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Jonathan Silverman (Author), Dean Rader (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0131931989 | ISBN-13: 978-0131931985 | Edition: 2

The book teaches readers the usefulness of learning to actively "read" their surroundings. The new edition features a greatly expanded section on writing, editing, and making arguments. This cultural studies reader directly engages the process of writing about the "texts" one sees in everyday life. Its comprehensive and inclusive approach focuses on the relationship between reading traditional works–such as short stories, and poems–and other less-traditional ones–such as movies, the Internet, race, ethnicity, and television. For anyone who enjoys provocative and engaging material, and is interested in developing an appreciation for diverse cultural literary works.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts

The new cultural studies reader is devoted to teaching you how to "read" all kinds of texts. Its comprehensive and inclusive approach focuses on the relationship between reading traditional works (short stories and poems) and less traditional ones (movies, the Internet, television, etc.), as well as encourages you to read the everyday world around you.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From an early age, we are readers, both of so-called traditional texts—fiction, poetry, and drama—and nontraditional texts-movies, television, and especially people. While the schooling process focuses on the former, our everyday living focuses on the latter.

As a human being, this type of reading is crucial for being an active participant in the world. But too often this "informal" reading is given short shrift in the classroom. While we agree that training in reading traditional texts such as novels, short stories, poetry, and plays is a crucial aspect of an education, perhaps the crucial aspect, we also believe that the methods used in learning to read traditional texts can be applied to nontraditional ones as well—with the overall goal of understanding the world around us and reducing the distance between the classroom and the "real world."

Our book comes out of these ideas. While there are many popular culture readers out there, good ones in fact, we never quite found the book we wanted; one that focused on the classroom experience and the writing situation. We think the classroom should be a dynamic place, and we think writing and discussion is crucial to learning how to think. The World Is a Text is as much a book for teachers as it is for students in that regard. We hope that our questions, introductions, and exercises give teachers the tools they need to teach students how to write with clarity and intelligence, to read more actively and astutely, and finally to engage the world more actively. While all three missions are crucial, the first two are clearly more aimed at academic achievement. The last we think is critical in our missions as teachers. We believe students who read their worlds more actively are not only better students, but better citizens of the world.

For its pedagogy, The World Is a Text relies on a modified semiotic approach; it is based on the assumption that reading occurs at all times and places. It also relies on traditional critical skills employed by literary scholars and the generally contextual approach employed by cultural studies scholars. The book also features a sophisticated way of thinking about texts, writing, and the rhetorical moment. Taking as its major theoretical framework I.A. Richards' claim that rhetoric is a philosophic inquiry into how words work in discourse, The World Is a Text considers how various texts enact rhetorical strategies and how students might begin not only to recognize these strategies but write their own. Textual analysis (reading) and textual formation (writing) jointly contribute to the larger process of knowledge making. Thus, The World Is a Text is interested in helping students to ask not simply what something means but how something means.

And because knowledge making requires knowledge of how we make arguments and sentences and theses and assertions, this book goes one step further than similar readers in that, in our experience, writing remains a secondary concern for most anthologies. One of our goals is to make the writing experience a vital part of the entire book from the introduction, to the section on writing, to each individual reading. For instance, Section I, "The World Is a Text: Writing" takes a comprehensive approach to the various stages of the writing process. We walk students through selecting a topic, brainstorming, outlining, developing a thesis, and revising. We offer help with research and citation. We even provide a unique chapter on making the transition from high school to college writing. One of our goals is to help students make these connections between reading and writing, thinking and writing, revising and revisioning.

The World Is a Text also has its focus in encountering media and texts in general; each chapter has questions that encourage students not only to respond to readings but the texts and media themselves. Every chapter has an introduction that focuses on reading media and individual "texts" (not the readings themselves). In the readings that follow, each piece features questions geared toward both reading and writing. And its general apparatus in the form of worksheets and classroom exercises encourages students to use the readings as a starting point for their own explorations of television, race, movies, art, and the other media and texts we include here.

On a more theoretical level, we show how language in text and context functions to produce meaning. And we talk about how writing is fundamentally linked to other aspects of critical inquiry like reading, listening, thinking, and speaking. Ultimately, part of our approach comes from Kenneth Burke. Just as he argues that all literature is a piece of rhetoric, we suggest that all texts are rhetoric and that every moment is a potential moment for reading and therefore for writing.

What we envision this book will do for students is help them bridge culture and text. However, we present material in a way that provides context, direction and structure. In that sense, the book is traditional; however, the expanded nature of what a text is makes our approach innovative. We hope that, in turn, this will allow students to expand their idea of reading and therefore expand their critical relationship to the world. In an academic setting, where accountability and practicality are watchwords, giving students a more interpretative way of looking at and writing about the world seems especially appropriate.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131931989
• ISBN-13: 978-0131931985
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Approach and Selections Make this a Winner, May 20, 2003

By 

G. McCoy "madue" (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World Is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and its Contexts (Paperback)

Using poetry, fiction, photos, and essays, the book offers a colorful tour of the subtle and not-so-subtle influences Americans deal with every day, and it guides the reader through the process of 'reading' these 'texts' that make up our world. The texts include not just the written variety but also television, movies, popular music, and public space.
The readings include essays on 'Seinfeld,' 'The Simpsons,' and the Rosie O'Donnell show, in addition to choice works by Neruda, Langston Hughes, Chris Haven, Kate Chopin, and many others. I haven't found a dry one in bunch, honestly, though at first glance I was afraid the section on public space would be a snooze. Not so! It's actually pretty thought-provoking.
The book's pedagogical emphasis is on getting readers to find and analyze the subtexts that run through cultural influences of all kinds and to explore their reactions through writing. I think this aspect of the book is very well done and would be effective in getting students to think critically about the world.

The strange and beautiful (not to mention utterly surprising) thing about this work is that it makes for consistently fascinating reading despite its status as a composition/cultural studies text. I've been leafing through the selections for pleasure reading, and from that perspective, it's an uncommonly tasty collection.

As a reader for a class, I think this book would be tremendously effective, and were I to teach a composition or cultural studies class, it would be my first choice.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!!, March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The World Is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and its Contexts (Paperback)

This is an excellent book!!! This book provides an intelligent, engaging and enjoyable perspective of reading, writing and understanding literature. What makes this book captivating is the personal tone of the book, it really has a unique approach to teaching literature and it's very lively copy. Captivating literature choices!!! I really enjoy this book, it not only teaches about literature, it also touches on the life around us and how we interact with that world. This book comes in handy for any stage of your writing and it is an enjoyable read. Intelligent writers, whose strongest asset is their own fresh thoughts they share with the reader!!! Highly recommend this book!!

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good deal, August 28, 2008

By 

Lingshan Song "Lingshan Song" (Clinton, MS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World is a Text: The Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

It is a good shopping experience for me. The shipping speed of this product is fast so that I can use it for my class on time. The condition is fairly the same as described as the seller. Thank you so much.