Alterity Literacy and Popular Media

摘要

In the animation The Ant Bully, ten year old Lucas Nickle learns the hard way of what it means to be the other in the land, in this case an ant living amongst "the destroyer" humans. The ants view Lucas as a member of the 'destroyer' for the human's tendency to destroy their colony while Lucas considers the ants as inconsequential mindless creatures which do not have any "feeling" and arc thus dispensable. The obvious profiling and stereotyping that each holds of the other becomes the central conflict in the story. The preliminary profiling that Lucas has of the small and "stupid" ants is challenged when he has to endure life as a member of an ant colony. As an educational tool, the discourse in the movie is an ideal site to facilitate social literacy among young learners of a diverse society who have experienced otherness due to difference of culturc/racc/ethnicity/rcligion etc. Through the activities suggested, educators may use current the animated film to facilitate engagement of alterity among their learners towards developing mutual tolerance and respect.