크리티컬 리터러시를 적용한 『알래스카를 찾아서』읽기

Reading Looking for Alaska Through Critical Literacy(CL) Centering on Superiority of the White and Racism

This study aims at reading Looking for Alaska with critical literacy to find hidden biases in the text generated from racism or superiority of the white. In texts, there must be concrete intentions of an author in order to influence a reader. In Looking for Alaska, in spite of its popularity in American-reading education, the text reveals both superiority of the white and racism indirectly through allowing Eastern men or foreigners to be marginalized. In other words, the text contains several concealed hazardous elements which present racial discriminations against those who are not the white. Therefore, if unconsciously reading the text without diverse perspectives originating from CL, a reader can acquire hidden biases settled by the author. Thus, when reading texts, a student or a reader should be ready to become an active reader who can discover an author’s hidden schemes. In addition, they definitely need to be equipped with problem-posing questions based on CL-based models to prevent themselves from being absorbed in biases or racial discriminations. In conclusion, this critical attitude can not only encourage a reader to engage in penetrating the author’s negative intentions, but also allow the reader to pursue and spread justice and equality for creating the better world by going beyond a class wall.