New literacy studies

This paper makes the case for the continuing importance of literacy studies within linguistic ethnography, particularly given the nature of the kinds of societies in which we are working.  It underlines the importance of continuing to develop concepts and approaches for analysis of the textually mediated nature of the contemporary social world, in which the significance of communication in digital environments and multimodal communication have increased.

In recent years the debates on praxeology gradually led to a bifurcation, following the beaten pathways of the division of scientific work. On the one hand, praxeological approaches were received in social theory and comparative theoretical studies. They were seen as theoretical innovations, and assessed and classified accordingly, with regard to their intersections and differences to other theoretical approaches (Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 1996). Most of the foundational approaches to praxeology are closely connected to empirical studies. This applies to Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology, to Erving Goffman's studies of interaction, to Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology and to Bruno Latour's actor-network-theory (ANT). This dominant theoretical strand of practice theory however hardly accounts for the practical problems linked with using praxeological approaches in empirical research. On the other hand, just recently the relevancy and the affordances of praxeology for consulting, advising and policy interventions have been called for and emphasized (Nicolini, 2012; Shove et al., 2012). In the light of this prevailing divergence between theoretical endeavors on the one hand, and applied organizational and political objectives on the other hand, we now run the risk of losing sight of the epistemological and methodological issues at the core of praxeology. To address such issues, this paper focuses on the methodology of praxeology. It suggests a procedure of praxeologizing the objects of inquiry. This procedure is depicted in three steps: Firstly the paper comes up with the empirical example of academic practices of writing, especially of writing social theory. This serves to point out the methodological tasks and empirical challenges of praxeology. It is shown how praxeologizing theoretical writing can highlight particular and novel aspects of this practical and epistemic activity. By empirically studying academic writing practices, praxeology helps to question prevailing approaches in writing studies. Secondly, the epistemological aspects of praxeology are pointed out. It is argued that praxeology, first of all, is concerned with the misrepresentations of doings and practical activities in the theoretical models designed to grasp and to explain them. Referring to Pierre Bourdieu’s discovery of the praxeological mode of epistemology in his ethnographic studies in Algeria, this ‘negative’ and reflexive perspective on social practices is highlighted. In a third step, the paper proceeds to provide a conceptual tool kit for praxeologizing.

This paper describes an experience of introducing critical literacy in a pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education course at a large university in Brazil, aimed at students' critical education and their preparation as future critical teachers. The paper tries to show how the concepts of transnational literacies and critical literacy have been used as a standpoint for teacher education and for the development of critical approaches to language teaching. The paper also highlights the importance of including education for citizenship in Brazilian teacher education programs in order to have EFL teachers and student teachers question themselves as globalized and  technologized  (LANKSHEAR; KNOBEL, 2003, p. 155) citizens, as well as to reflect on their roles in fostering responsible social transformation and in the promotion of social justice (HAWKINS, 2011a; ZEICHNER, 2011).

'what literacy does.'' First, the article reviews in-depth the ways in which development discourses define literacy, and the claims made in development discourses about the ''consequences'' of literacy for economic and political development. I then draw on 24 months of ethnographic research in Brazil with 41 highly impoverished literacy students from four literacy programs in two cities in order to demonstrate that there is no predictable ''impact'' of literacy on development. Instead, I show that the opportunities afforded by literacy depend greatly on the types of literacy and the types of literacy programs made available to students, as well as students' cultural understandings of literacy and the social, political, and economic contexts within which they attempt to assert new literacy practices. The article concludes that we should not consider literacy as an actor with some ''impact''; instead, we should examine how people use literacy in ways that are conditioned by social and cultural forces. r

This article explores how research conducted in the emerging discipline of Game Studies may be used to develop tools for teaching videogames in the English and Literacy classroom. The article argues, by drawing on the debate between ‘narratologists’ and ‘ludologists’ that acknowledging and marking out the key differences between videogame play and the ‘reading’ or ‘consumption’ of other media texts is integral to the successful uptake and development of videogame- based and videogame-centred curriculum.

We document the language learning outcomes of an informant affiliated with a community of scanlation when participating in practices of reading, translation, typesetting and proofreading of mangas. We draw on a social-semiotic approach to multimodality and we use ethnographic and discourse-analytic techniques to examine a corpus of semi-structured interviews, recordings of onscreen desktop activity and scanned pages of manga translated by the informant and the corresponding original pages in English. The findings reveal that the informant actively constructs meaning of texts combining verbal, graphic and typographic semiotic resources and that she achieves a remarkable awareness of the specific and socio-culturally situated nature of the use of these resources.

Educational design research-Part B: Illustrative cases

Citation: Abdallah, M. (2013). Employing a three-phase design-based research methodology for expanding student teachers' language-related literacy practices in an Egyptian pre-service English education programme. In T. Plomp, & N. Nieveen (Eds.), Educational design research-Part B: Illustrative cases (pp. 927-946). Enschede, the Netherlands: SLO. SLO • Netherlands institute for curriculum development Credits 2013 SLO (Netherlands institute for curriculum development), Enschede All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part by photocopying or any other means, provided the source is mentioned. Contents 43. Employing a three-phase design-based research methodology for expanding student teachers' language-related literacy practices in an Egyptian pre-service English education programme Abstract
The chapter reports on a case of a research study that investigates the possibility of expanding Egyptian pre-service EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices by integrating some web-based new literacies into their education programme.

After an overview of the rationale, objectives, and research problem, a detailed argument is provided to rationalise the choice of DBR for the purposes of the study based on some epistemological considerations, and to explain why it has been preferred to other prominent research methodologies (e.g., experimental design, interpretivist research, and action research). Moreover, a special focus is given to pragmatism as a basis of DBR. This is followed by a review of the specific design-based research (DBR) methodology employed (i.e. a three-stage research framework): (1) the preliminary phase, which acts as a theoretical and empirical foundation; (2) the prototyping phase of two iterations; (3) the assessment/reflective phase presenting a final design framework for expanding EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices.
My main focus here is on the three-phase research design and the procedures followed in the prototyping phase to highlight DBR as a process, and thus provide readers with a practical, contextual example of how DBR can be employed in reality by doctoral students.

This article explores the digital reading preferences and strategies used by preservice teachers when reading an e-textbook in a literacy methods course. The use of e-textbooks is becoming more prevalent due to an increase in access to mobile devices, acceptance of e-books in general, and the high cost of print textbooks. To ensure comprehension, teachers need an awareness of e-textbook features and the processes for effectively reading text with embedded web links, video clips, and audio files. In this study, some participants described an increase in cognitive engagement due to the ability to both utilize e-textbook features and engage with media, in addition to text. Others found the process of reading an e-textbook challenging because of distractions on their device, eye-strain, and a feeling of being overwhelmed with choices. Overall the preservice teachers expressed a preference for choice between using print, electronic format, or both.

Este trabajo rescata la voz de una persona (Paula) que ofrece un testimonio revelador –y bastante desgarrador– de cómo la literacidad académica constituye un discurso construido históricamente con claros efectos ideológicos. De hecho, los desencuentros de Paula con la literacidad académica pueden representar los desencuentros de muchos estudiantes de educación superior. Desde el marco teórico interdisciplinario de Los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad, se discutirá la literacidad académica en tres de sus aspectos: epistemología, identidad y poder.

There were two purposes to this preliminary study: 1) to begin the development of an
instrument designed to measure the dispositions important for online reading comprehension; and 2) to conduct an initial validation study of this instrument through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Recent work (Coiro & Dobler, 2007; Henry, 2007; Kuiper & Volman, 2008; Leu, Coiro, Castek, Hartman, Henry, & Reinking, 2008) suggests that online reading comprehension is not isomorphic with offline reading comprehension. This work, however, has been limited to the cognitive skills and strategies of online reading comprehension. The recent Information Literacy Summit in the U.S. (Perrault, 2006) as well as a review of information and communication technology frameworks from nations such as Norway, France, the U. K., and Australia (Bélisle & Rosado, 2007), all indicate the importance of new dispositions that are also necessary to effectively read and learn from online information. As Guthrie, Wigfield, and Perencevich (2004) indicate, affective variables are as important to consider as cognitive variables during reading. Unfortunately, however, we lack valid and reliable methods to measure the affective variables important to online reading comprehension. Instruments such as these would advance research since they would provide us with additional tools to evaluate more completely the consequences of different instructional practices.

RESUMO (Abstract in English below)
Esse artigo explora o livro infantil interativo como forma de expressão literária que exige do leitor infantil orques-trar diversos tipos de letramento para, em última instân-cia, desenvolver sua capacidade de ler criticamente textos multimodais, digitais e interativos diversos. O modelo de análise envolvendo os níveis perceptivo, estrutural e ideológico (SERAFINI, 2010; 2015) é proposto para promover, por meio dos livros digitais, a articulação de múltiplos letramentos na escola.

ABSTRACT
This work explores the interactive book app for children
as a form of literary expression that requires from the
young reader the capacity to orchestrate various forms
of literacy to promote their ability to read critically
multimodal, digital and interactive texts. Serafini’s
model for the analysis of picturebooks in three levels,
perceptive, structural, and ideological (SERAFINI,
2010; 2015), is proposed as a didactic tool to promote
these multiliteracies at school through the reading of
picturebook apps.

"Recently, educators have begun to consider what is required in literacy curricula and best teaching practices given the demands placed on the educator sector and on literacy in general.

Multiliteracies and Technology Enhanced Education: Social Practice and the Global Classroom features theoretical reflections and approaches on the use of multiliteracies and technologies in the improvement of education and social practices. Assisting educators at different teaching levels and fostering professional development and progress in this growing field, this innovative publication supports practitioners concerned with teaching at both a local and global level."

Fuera de la escuela, muchos chicos leen y escriben en línea de manera novedosa e interactiva. Aprovechando los recursos que ofrecen las TIC, construyen pequeñas y privadas comunidades de lectores y escritores de fanfic, historias realistas, fotologs y poesía. Estos textos tiene características particulares, mezclan códigos variados (escritura, foto, cómic, emoticones) e integran recursos retóricos procedentes de diferentes géneros (narrativa, teatro, diálogo). Las formas de usar esos textos también presentan novedades: la manera de aprender a leer y escribir estos textos, los comentarios y las réplicas sobre los textos, el proceso de construcción de la comunidad de lectores, etc. En definitiva, los chicos leen y escriben para fortalecer su identidad y para estrechar los lazos con sus amigos.

Common patterns of interactions are altered in the digital world and new patterns of communication have emerged, challenging previous notions of what communication actually is in the contemporary age. Online configurations of interaction, such as video chats, blogging, and social networking practices demand profound rethinking of the categories of linguistic analysis, given the blurring of traditional distinctions between oral and written discourse in digital texts. This volume reconsiders underlying linguistic and semiotic frameworks of analysis of spoken and written discourse in the light of the new paradigms of online communication, in keeping with a multimodal corpus linguistics theoretical framework.

Typical modes of online interaction encompass speech, writing, gesture, movement, gaze, and social distance. This is nothing new, but here Sindoni asserts that all these modes are integrated in unprecedented ways, enacting new interactional patterns and new systems of interpretation among web users. These "non verbal" modes have been sidelined by mainstream linguistics, whereas accounting for the complexity of new genres and making sense of their educational impact is high on this volume’ s agenda. Sindoni analyzes other new phenomena, ranging from the intimate sphere (i.e. video chats, personal blogs or journals on social networking websites) to the public arena (i.e. global-scale transmission of information and knowledge in public blogs or media-sharing communities), shedding light on the rapidly changing global web scenario.

This research has been partly funded by the postdoctoral grant Videogames as an academic and vernacular literacy practice (ED481B-2017/007, Government of Galicia, Spain) and by the research projects ICUDEL (EDU2014-57677-C2-1-R, Ministry of Economy, Spain) and Fandom in Spain (3rd call, Queen Sophia Center for Youth and Adolescence, Spain).

This work explores the interactive book app for children as a form of literary expression that requires from the young reader the capacity to orchestrate various forms of literacy to promote their ability to read critically multimodal, digital and interactive texts. Serafini's model for the analysis of picturebooks in three levels, perceptive, structural, and ideological (SERAFINI, 2010; 2015), is proposed as a didactic tool to promote these multiliteracies at school through the reading of picturebook apps.

En este artículo analizo el discurso del programa nacional de alfabetización en el Perú de principios de la década del 2000. Me pregunto por el conjunto de prácticas que se han utilizado para alfabetizar en el Perú, por el concepto de alfabetización que ha guiado los esfuerzos de los programas, por la manera en que las políticas de alfabetización posicionan a los alfabetizadores y a los alfabetizandos, y por los objetivos y los resultados que esperan.

This research explores literacy teachers’ perceptions of integrating information communication technologies (ICTs)
into literacy instruction. To this end, a national survey of 1,441 literacy teachers in the United States was conducted.
The survey provided data concerning the types and levels of reported availability and use of ICTs, beliefs about the
importance of integrating ICTs into literacy instruction, and perceived obstacles to doing so. The analysis of data
included descriptive statistics, an exploratory factor analysis, and a path analysis used to test a model hypothesizing a
relation between teachers’ perceived importance of technology and reported levels of integration. Results revealed
relatively low levels of curricular integration, consistent perceptions about obstacles to integration, and technological
rather than curricular definitions of ICTs and of integration. The path analysis suggested several characteristics and
influences associated with higher levels of integration and use. The findings advance understanding of the extent to
which ICTs are being integrated into literacy instruction and what factors should be considered toward profitably
increasing integration consistent with expanding definitions of literacy.

Este libro presenta un estudio etnográfico sobre las prácticas letradas en castellano y en quechua en una comunidad campesina del sur andino en el Perú. Se muestran los desencuentros entre el ámbito de la escuela intercultural bilingüe, el hogar y la comunidad y la iglesia evangélica.

Preface and Introduction to the edited volume *The Tyranny of Writing: Ideologies of the Written Word* (eds. Constanze Weth & Kasper Juffermans), Bloomsbury (Advances in Sociolinguistics), 2018.

The book is an attempt to make sense of the written word and its powerful role in society. By using the word ‘tyranny’ we take an explicitly critical stance towards writing inspired above all by Saussure’s argument against writing as an object of linguistic research and what he called 'la tyrannie de la lettre'. He denounced writing as an imperfect, distorted image of speech that obscures our view of language and its structure. In this introduction to The Tyranny of Writing: Ideologies of the Written Word, we discuss the ‘tyranny of writing’ as a critical metaphor for sociolinguistics. The idea of the ‘tyranny of writing’ serves as a heuristic for exploring ideologies of language and literacy in culture and society as well as the tensions and contradictions between the written and the spoken word, linguistic normativity, creativity and authenticity, and centres and peripheries in language practices.

This course, the second in a two-course sequence, is designed with two purposes in mind. First, it will serve to induct beginning doctoral and Ed.M. students in into the discourse community of English education by familiarizing them with the history of the field of English education and with the seminal texts that have shaped and defined the field as an intellectual discipline and discrete arena for research and teaching. "Classic texts" refers to articles, chapters and books that have had a transformative impact on research, on theory, and on principles and practices for the teaching of English historically. "Contemporary Trends" will focus on new voices in the field defined broadly to include traditional English Education scholarship as well as media and cultural studies, women's studies, ethnic studies, linguistic anthropology, and curriculum theory. This course will also explore the relationship between sociocultural learning, critical pedagogical theories, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, Critical Race Feminisms, and recent transformations (and conflicts) in the field. The second aim of the course, implied by its first aim, is to prepare present and prospective doctoral students for the first certification examination in English education, which is largely an examination covering the history and principal texts and theories of the field of English education.

Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo general identificar los factores que determinan las prácticas de lectura y escritura de diez estudiantes activos de la Universidad de Guadalajara observados por siete semanas con una metodología de etnografía digital que constó de cinco instrumentos. La pertinencia del estudio radica en que estas prácticas han sido atravesadas por la digitalidad en las últimas décadas, resignificando sus usos y consolidando la permanencia de los eventos letrados en gran parte de los actos cotidianos por medio de los dispositivos. Los resultados invitan a reflexionar sobre la complejidad de la lectura y escritura como prácticas onlife –un campo en el que lo virtual y lo presencial se encuentran constantemente entretejidos–,
donde Internet se convierte en una herramienta de acceso a la lectura, lo que conlleva a la práctica de la multiliteracidad en la construcción de sentido, individual y colaborativo, por parte de los jóvenes.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This paper examines the recently emerged multimodal artefacts commonly known as Internet memes in the light of the new literacies that are rapidly emerging in the digital age. Attention is paid particularly to the most popular type of Internet meme – image macros – with Joseph Ducreux as a model meme, analyzing and demonstrating their features as well as their correlation with the theoretical framework of new literacies. The paper includes a brief introduction to the theory of new literacies in relation to Internet memes followed by a description of memetic selectivity, distribution, classification and the linguistic and non-linguistic peculiarities of this phenomenon that expand the traditional notion of literacy.

Darija (Moroccan Arabic) has changed status - in the Moroccan society, if not in the official institutions - in the last ten years, reaching recognition as the national language. It had been confined to illiteracy, backwardness and considered incompatible with education or modernity. It accompanied the new social and cultural movement (the Moroccan ‘movida’, Nayda ), from the years 2005-2007, managing to both, overpass the linguistic ideologies in people’s judgements on Darija, and gain a new role with the help of the NTIC under a novel written form.
The first drastic change was the non-institutional language planning it experienced, under the form of a spontaneous passage to writing - on keyboards (cell phones first  and later, computers) – via different social networks from the beginning of the century. In the absence of any institutional support, people taught themselves to read and write Darija fluently in Latin script at first, and more recently in Arabic script , with a true DIY  spirit. Millions of messages have been written daily for nearly fifteen years.
In 2015, we are past the stage of basic exchanges that prevailed in the first stages, and we have entered the era of writing of long prose texts in Darija –mostly on the internet, be it on blogs, in long facebook posts, in slamming or rapping, or in comic strips: nothing less than an informal passage to literacy!

Details of a lecture give at an International Lettering Arts Conference in 2013 about a unique alphabet invented by two young men from the Fulani Tribe of Guinea. With their tribe over 90% illiterate, they set out to create a writing system that better represented the sounds of their speech. From its creation, this alphabetic writing system has made great strides in literacy for their tribe, and has been set up for a Unicode release in 2016.

A partir de la presentación de tres perspectivas diferentes de investigación sobre la cultura escrita o el 'alfabetismo' (literacy), se describen y ejemplifican los principales fundamentos de una orientación sociocultural, que entiende la lectura y la escritura como prácticas sociales. También se describen algunos de los cambios que están experimentando hoy en días estas prácticas letradas, y se acaba con algunas aplicaciones y orientaciones para la educación y la formación de lectores críticos.

Modern perspectives on the innovation of teaching pedagogies, language assessments, theories and practice were introduced. However, limited attention was given to ESL users' modality of reading comprehension and preference. This empirical study explores the difference between Online and Offline Reading Comprehension of Filipino Grade Eleven students based on their raw scores. The study sought to answer the question: Is there a significant difference between Online and Offline Reading Comprehension of participants? Mixed methods were employed to strengthen the validity and reliability of the study. Statistical analysis was initially conducted followed by observation and focus group discussion. New Literacies and online-based language assessments are primary concerns that opens for further researches.

Ce mémoire de master 2 tente de décrire, grâce à une enquête ethnographique menée dans une classe de CM2 parisienne - l'école Laborde - pendant six mois, les pratiques d'écriture scolaires comme des pratiques sociales. L'écrit scolaire apparaît ainsi comme faisant partie du "travail" de l'écolier, et cristallisant ainsi la complexité des relations scolaires - entre apprentissage, discipline et résistance.
Dans un premier temps, nous tâcherons donc de décrire l’école comme à la fois un lieu d’écriture et un lieu pédagogique. Nous tenterons de faire un panorama des écrits scolaires, et décrirons la spécificité d’un lieu dont la fonction principale est l’apprentissage. Si ce premier chapitre tentera un premier portrait de l’école Laborde et ses écrits en général, les chapitres suivants tenteront des « coups de sonde » dans le flux de la réalité scolaire pour s’immerger au cœur des interactions. Le second chapitre interrogera la notion d’écrit comme « technologie de l’intellect »  en observant la diversité des configurations sociales qui amènent l’écrit à produire des effets cognitifs. Enfin, le dernier chapitre soulignera l’importance de l’évaluation et de la discipline à l’école, et pointera l’imbrication de ces dernières dans des dispositifs écrits.

(*updated version) This chapter focuses on the development of critical literacy scholarship and practices in Hong Kong over the past 30 years, against the backdrop of increasing influence and control by the People's Republic of China. The chapter begins with an overview of relevant social, political, and economic developments in the Hong Kong city-state's history, and intersections of those developments with its schooling system and academia. Key issues of educational equity and social justice are highlighted, followed by a breakdown of significant works in critical literacy research literature, methodologies, and pedagogies at the primary, secondary, and university level. This chapter also tackles elements of the ongoing protest movement and possibilities for more transformative research and praxis, including through application of intersectional and transnational approaches.

In the late 1990s, prominent strands of engaged scholarship for TESOL shifted its focus from cognitive theories of second language learning to critically conscious paradigms interrogating the social contexts of schooling. Committed to the potential of Freirean "humanizing" pedagogies, grounded relationships of dignity, care, and teacher-activism, subsequent scholarship has leveraged critical pedagogies for social change in and outside the language classroom. In this chapter, we outline shared concepts of critical pedagogies in TESOL, examples of their intersections with English language teaching, and the tension therein. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for the field. Resources for further exploration are applied linguistics provided.

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.

The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Contents


Introduction                                                                                     
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                             
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik               
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                     
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                       

Bibliographic Abbreviations   

Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/
(9) Ariel Evan Mayse, 'Review', Jewish History (2015)ת  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10835-015-9245-2
(10) Review - Gal-Ed