Writing from These Roots: Literacy in a Hmong American Community - Hardcover

Duffy, John M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824830954 ISBN 13: 9780824830953

Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007

Synopsis

Writing from These Roots documents the historical development of literacy in a Midwestern American community of Laotian Hmong, a people who came to the United States as refugees from the Vietnam War and whose language had no widely accepted written form until one created by missionary-linguists was adopted in the late twentieth century by Hmong in Laos and, later, the U.S. and other Western nations. For this reason, the Hmong provide a unique opportunity to study the forces that influence the development of reading and writing abilities in cultures in which writing is not widespread and to do so within the context of the political, economic, religious, military, and migratory upheavals classified broadly as ""globalization."" Drawing on life-history interviews collected from Hmong refugees in a Wisconsin community, this book examines the disparate political and institutional forces that shaped Hmong literacy development in the twentieth century, including, in Laos, French colonialism, Laotian nationalism, missionary Christianity, and the CIA during the Vietnam War. It further examines the influences on Hmong literacy in the U.S., including public schooling, evangelical Christianity, ethnic self-help organizations, and media discourses about Hmong refugees.

About this title

About the Author

John M. Duffy is assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824830954
• ISBN 13: 9780824830953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312