M. J. Maddox http://maevemaddox.com Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:36:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Common Knowledge and Literacy http://maevemaddox.com/common-knowledge-and-literacy/ http://maevemaddox.com/common-knowledge-and-literacy/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 18:39:56 +0000 Maeve http://maevemaddox.com/wordpress/?p=211 Communication is more than a matter of words. Shared knowledge contributes to mutual understanding. For example, football and baseball metaphors may illuminate an argument for sports-minded American listeners, but only obscure it for listeners unacquainted with the games alluded to.

The ability to read serious literature or advanced non-fiction depends upon more than the ability to recognize words. True literacy requires a fund of common knowledge about the world and the world’s literary canon.

When an American college student complains that the writing of Martin Luther King, Jr. is “too hard,” something is missing from that student’s vocabulary and store of common knowledge.

I’ve decided to discontinue my fruitless rants and commentary on current affairs and stick to what I know something about. I shall in future devote this site to the transmission of vocabulary and the fund of common knowledge that enable a reader to interpret the allusions that writers of the past–and educated writers of the present–use to convey their thoughts.

Tomorrow’s post will focus on vocabulary and allusions in Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

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