(RE)WRITING YOUTH: BASIC WRITING, YOUTH CULTURE, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

<p>As an extension of Henry Giroux's critique of mainstream media and popular culture's depictions of young people, this article examines the ways in which students in basic writing respond to rhetorical constructions of their generation. It argues that compositionists' efforts to intervene and mediate society's conceptions of youth are complicated by students' simultaneous acceptance and rejection of these representations and also explores the subsequent implications for students' and teachers' responsibility and complicity in society's "demonization" of young people. Claiming that students in basic writing are uniquely situated to write across and against society's definitions of them, the author suggests approaches to critical basic writing pedagogy that bring youth culture into its critique, paying particular attention to public writing.</p>