Constructing Anne Frank: Critical Literacy and the Holocaust in Eighth‐Grade English

Abstract

Using the assumption that texts actively work to position readers and readers actively work to position texts, the authors argue that moral lessons emerge from the interactions between texts, readers, and the ideological narratives that inspire both. After differentiating versions of Anne Frank's diary and explicating motives behind their construction, we explore ways that students' perspectives of Anne Frank impede robust understandings of the Holocaust, including enabling readers to preserve assumptions about Anne Frank as only optimistic and triumphant. Through critical literacy practices, the authors demonstrate how narrow perspectives of texts and readers can be interrupted through questioning about readers, authors, texts, and different versions of Anne Frank's diary. Teaching tips are provided, and the article concludes by discussing the importance of equipping students with critical literacy tools for reading the Holocaust in particular and for reading all texts more generally.