The Emperor's New Clothes: Literature, Literacy, and the Ideology of Style by Kathryn T. Flannery (review)

70Rocky Mountain Review Japan" (30), or as domestic help in the Middle East and Asia, or as mailorder brides to Australians, Germans, Japanese, leading to "the feminization " of overseas immigration. Her sobering comment: "Under military dictatorships, women's studies is inextricably linked to the broader movement for political and social change, of which the women's movement is an integral part" (41). Fareeha Zafar of Pakistan also gives a succinct history of repression presented by the government under the garb of Islamic rule beginning with martial law of July 1977—the year Zafar left for London to earn her doctoral degree—and the Hadood Ordinance of 1979, which authorized the award ofhadd punishment (flogging, stoning to death, cutting of limbs). These essays are uneven in terms of the writers' levels of feminist consciousness , scholarship, and activism. Nevertheless, this collection will give American readers valuable insights including the following: ( 1) Women who wish to improve women's lives have to battle overwhelming political and socioculturel hurdles in Asia. (2) Women's movements in most countries in Asia struggle largely at "raising the consciousness" stage—one that is still prevalent in some pockets in the United States as well. (3) Asian women's studies programs, initiated by predominantly male administrators and based on academic models from the "first world" countries, need to be conceptualized and shaped by their individual situations and strengthened through student grassroots-awareness, participation, and sociopolitical activism , as well as feminist critical theories generated by indigenous scholars . Some of the writers themselves voice this need. (4) The concept that "power" in all its sophisticated ramifications is paramount in gender relationships and gender liberation is largely unrecognized, especially since Asian societies have valued family honor, harmony, and social good over individual concerns. The book makes absorbing reading. Readers will not be disappointed. NEILA C. SESHACHARI Weber State University KATHRYN T. FLANNERY. The Emperor's New Clothes: Literature, Literacy, and the Ideology of Style. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995. 240 p. JVlake your sentences clear, concise and to the point." On the surface, this fairly common admonition made by teachers to student writers all over the nation seems fairly innocuous, straight forward, and commonsensical. However, in her book, The Emperor's New Clothes, Kathryn T. Flannery makes a strong case that the fifth rhetorical domain, style, is closely connected to the agenda of the privileged culture of the time. When suggesting to students that they choose particular stylistic characteristics, we are inviting them to become insiders, part of the culture that defines and indeed Book Reviews71 controls the currency of literacy. And, when we deny or restrict access to, knowledge of, and the ability to use those same stylistic characteristics agreed upon by the dominant culture, we also deny them membership and the privileges that accompany that membership. Flannery makes her argument by looking at figures and movements that have had significant influence on contemporary views of style and by tracing the cultural authority leading to the reasoning and implementation of their stylistic biases. Flannery chose examples, which she describes as Geertzian postholes, that demonstrate the coming together of literary practice , pedagogy, and politics. She begins by discussing the twentieth-century plain style movement by looking at the work of Robert Gunning who was a readability consultant for businesses during the 1940's and 1950's. Flannery argues that Gunning's plain-text, keep-sentences-short approach was influential in shaping public perceptions of what constitutes good writing. She places Gunning's influence in the context of educational reform movements. During this time, scientific management research was attempting to make reading instruction more efficient for both children and adults. This attempt turned into a quest for an objective measurement for readability of texts. She demonstrates that the twentieth-century quest for a method by which to objectively measure readability and/or literacy achievements among students ignores the accessibility to literacy and the rewards for achievement that differs among genders, races, and socioeconomic strata. She chose powerful examples showing that style and literacy are culturally defined and valued. All these movements—educational reform, plain text, objectification or readability and literacy—Flannery argues, perpetuate the academy, its definition of literacy, and access...