Abstract
This thesis presents a new perspective on language and power by contrasting the pedagogy of post-secondary composition classrooms with the learning process of those communicating with street gang graffiti. Deemed a criminal act not worthy of study and shunned even by those who recognize the discursive complexity of street art, gang graffiti is often dismissed as dangerous and in need of instant eradication. However, as Northwestern University Professor Dwight Conquergood observed, gang graffiti, like all graffiti, is a language used to convey a specific message; it is a discourse laden with specific idiomatic and practical conventions employed to persuade a specific community towards a set of specific of (in)actions. In particular, gang graffiti is used to expropriate power in a community where more conventional languages do not work - in a community where the perception of power is a matter of life and death. Specifically, this thesis builds on the grammatical language of Kenneth Burke to contrast the construction of ethos across the two communities. Through a review of available literature, personal experience, and primary research through interviews, it will identify points of intersection between literacy in our universities and on our streets. It will specifically look at an often-ignored context outside academia to foster an understanding of the relationship of pedagogy to power in an attempt to deconstruct the divide between affluence and exclusion.