Quilts of authorship: A literature review of multimodal assemblage in the field of literacy education

Abstract

This literature review and narrative vignette draw on Social Symbolic Mediation, Social Semiotics, and Discursive Positioning theories to explore a theoretical model I call Authorship as Assemblage. Specifically, this paper challenges linear pathways to meaning-making by comparing authorship to quilt-making. Quilts afford unique arrangements of assemblage, including the capacity to embed, layer, interweave, and hybridize material. Here, I argue educators need to re-evaluate linear notions of literacy paths in today’s participatory culture.