Allusion is a rhetorical device or strategy that allows the writer to use events, people, or literary work, to demonstrate a position. Sven Birkerts uses allusion to support his argument on the effects of electronic media on the reading culture.
This essay is aimed at offering quotations that will be used in the draft.
“Language erosion” (128).
This is one of the effects that technology will bring in the future according to Birkerts. It is useful in composition of the draft because it offers the main idea of Birkerts article. The quotation will help me to project the authors aim, audience and subject. This quotation will also help organize the draft to reflect the position that the writer uses allusion to justify his point.
“Flattening of historical perspectives” (129).
This is the second consequence of the introduction of new media in learning according to the author. This will show the authors subject and purpose of writing the article. It will help develop the argument that the author used allusion to demonstrate how this trend is affecting the reading culture.
“The waning of private self” (130).
This is the third position held by the author about the effects of the new technology. It will add to evidence of how illusion has been used to prove this position. It offers a subject statement of the author as well as shedding light to the type of audience the author is writing.
“Adopted our usual strategy” (117).
This quotation shows what the author does and how he has come to experience the effects of technology. This is also an instant that the author points to an event in the past to prove the changing reading environment.
“Oral culture was overtaken by the writing technology.” (118)
This is an instant where the author uses past experiences to demonstrate what was happening at his time of writing the article. In relation to the three main positions or subjects of the author, this quotation shows the author referenced past events to clarify his points.
“Proto-literacy” (121).
This is a quote used to describe the transitional period when “oral culture was overtaken by the writing technology” (118). The writer uses this to exemplify what was happening at the time. It demonstrates the authors use of past literature and experiences to describe what he calls the
““Proto-electronic” era” (121).
“Media theorists from Marshal McLuhan to Walter Ong to Neil postman” (121-122).
This quote demonstrates the author’s use of experts in the media field to express his point. It will further analysis of use of allusion in Birkerts article.
“Commercially sponsored education packages” (124).
The article is critical to the analysis as it demonstrates efforts made to introduce new technology in school learning. It also shows the author’s use of allusion to demonstrate the changing reading culture.
“I don’t know whether to be depressed or impressed” (126).
This quotation shows the author’s dilemma on the new environment introduced by the electronic media. It also helps to show how Birkerts alludes to Camille Paglia’s assertion about baby boomers and those born prior to World War II.
“Library of Congress, our national shrine to the printed word” (127).
This indicates how Birkerts uses emotional attachment to the print media to elaborate the effects of the new technology. This also demonstrates Birkerts use of authoritative magazines –the Washington Post Magazine.
“The mixture is being shaken” (128).
This quotation is used as a metaphor of how the new technology is changing literary world. It is paraphrased from Heraclitus works.
Work Cited
Birkerts, Sven. “Into the Electronic Millennium.” The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York: Ballantine, 2006. 117-133. Print.
