ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a three-part discussion of popular literacy which finds in its energy and sociability its parallel in the hum of New Literacy classroom workshops. It explores the relevant themes in Romanticism that inform the New Literacy. The power and the politics of representation has not been fully realized by those New Literacy advocates heavily engaged in exploring the writing process. A method for getting at the heart of this project in reading and writing is to realize the marked parallels between Romanticism and the New Literacy. Romanticism's attack on these limits began with Wordsworth's realignment of poetry with the vernacular and indigenous language of the people, moving it away from the Classical standards. Both Romanticism and the New Literacy have set about in a similar way to make a place for themselves by denouncing the old texts and declaring the unrealized potential of a commonplace language for their new works as poets and teachers.
