Politicizing the Personal: Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright, and Some Thoughts on the Limits of Critical Literacy

The idea that "the personal is political" is both a commonplace in composition studies and something many have not yet fully theorized. The literature on personal writing tends to explore the relationship of the personal to academic discourse and the ethics and problems of intruding into students' lives. Because of this emphasis on the individual, some critics, such as James Berlin and Joel Haefner, suggest a dichotomy between personal writing and social critique, but such a position is undermined by some basic tenets of critical pedagogy, a strong influence on composition studies. Critical pedagogues do address the links between the personal and social critique but fail to fully explore a critical pedagogy tied to personal experience. This article examines the literacy narratives of Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" and Richard Wright's "Black Boy". According to the author, on the surface, Douglass's and Wright's narratives provide a simple celebration of literacy, however, a more complicated pattern emerges from the experiences of these men. Both men become obsessed with generative themes that help them create radical personal and social change--with reading and writing being central to their experiences.