Deborah Brandt introduces the concept of sponsors of literacy in her 1998 essay "Sponsors of Literacy." When thinking about sponsors of literacy, it is easier to understand the concept if you put it into a non-literary context. When a Coca Cola provides sponsorship for a television show, Coke is the company paying money which allows the show to remain on the air. This is not a one-way relationship, however. Coke isn't paying all this money just for the benefit of the TV producers and television audience; Coca Cola gets something out of it too. Coke provides sponsorship to work as advertising for their company, and then people get to watch TV.
Literary sponsorship works in the same way. There are many societal things that sponsor literacy, some of them being work places or religious institutions. Brandt uses many examples of literary sponsorship in her essay, including the church for African American slaves and a union job for a factory worker. When slaves were taught how to read by the church, it was not just for the sake of intelligence. Church goers were receiving salvation for spreading the word of god, and in the mean time, slaves learned how to read. A factory worker was sent to workshops to learn how to be a union leader, and in the mean time, became a better reader, writer, and negotiator.
This is the first time I have thought about the reciprocal relationship of literacy. Before, I thought of literacy as a one-way street. Someone teaches a student how to read, and the student benefits. With this new idea of sponsors of literacy, I can see that the student is not the only person benefiting from literacy acquisition. Perhaps the church did not have the best intentions and motivations when teaching slaves how to read, but the benefits for slaves far outweighed the not-so-great intentions.
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