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Vagueness and Care: On Affect and Literacy
Author(s) -
Snaza Nathan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
reading research quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.162
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1936-2722
pISSN - 0034-0553
DOI - 10.1002/rrq.364
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , vagueness , literacy , reading (process) , sociology , psychology , epistemology , social psychology , linguistics , pedagogy , philosophy , communication , fuzzy logic
In this commentary, the author responds to three articles using affect studies to rethink literacy, in Reading Research Quarterly ’s special issue on affect theory. Taking up how the three articles—by Boldt; Truman, Hackett, Pahl, Davies, and Escott; and Tanner, Leander, and Carter‐Stone—draw on divergent genealogies of affect theory, the author proposes that the ability of affect to capaciously capture such different approaches is one of its most important strengths. The author ends by considering the problem of borders as it appears across all three articles, ultimately arguing that the vagueness of concepts drawn from affect literacy is precisely what makes it an invaluable concept for thinking through how we may care for the literacies that sustain us.