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Abstract:
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This thesis presents a new perspective on language and power by contrasting the
pedagogy of post-secondary composition classrooms with the learning process of those
communicating with street gang graffiti. Deemed a criminal act not worthy of study and
shunned even by those who recognize the discursive complexity of street art, gang graffiti
is often dismissed as dangerous and in need of instant eradication. However, as
Northwestern University Professor Dwight Conquergood observed, gang graffiti, like all
graffiti, is a language used to convey a specific message; it is a discourse laden with
specific idiomatic and practical conventions employed to persuade a specific community
towards a set of specific of (in)actions. In particular, gang graffiti is used to expropriate
power in a community where more conventional languages do not work - in a
community where the perception of power is a matter of life and death.
Specifically, this thesis builds on the grammatical language of Kenneth Burke to contrast
the construction of ethos across the two communities. Through a review of available
literature, personal experience, and primary research through interviews, it will identify
points of intersection between literacy in our universities and on our streets. It will
specifically look at an often-ignored context outside academia to foster an understanding
of the relationship of pedagogy to power in an attempt to deconstruct the divide between
affluence and exclusion. |
