Description

In this piece, Crowley analyzes the writing of her late mother when she lived in rural Minnesota in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Building on Deborah Brandt's theory of sponsors of literacy, the author demonstrates how the feminist movement served as a sponsor for her mother, an already very literate woman, in her own writing. Crowley discusses specific texts her late mother read as part of a women's book group and uses those texts as a lens for reading some of her mother's work. Through this analysis, she demonstrates how those texts, often prominent titles in the women's movement, influenced her mother, and ultimately helped lead her to a career as a professional journalist. In this project, Crowley not only argues that a social movement can assume the role of literacy sponsor, but also discusses the important role personal writing can assume in academic projects.