Caught up in the moment: seeking magic in literacy research

In the public consciousness there is significant capacity for talking about how experiences move us, how we get caught up in things, and the ways in which what we imagine impacts on who we are. In this chapter we explore ways of considering the “magic” of what people get caught up in as a means through which to undertake literacies research. Thinking about magic to consider the embodied, relational and sensory nature of literacies, what enchants us, how we become through interaction, and the magic of the everyday as well as the magic of research processes. Considering the impact of imaginaries, engrossment, and affiliations on our day-to-day lives, we examine what is gained from starting with them when we come to investigate literacies and language. What cuts across differing contexts, institutions, behaviours, permissions, relationships, modes, media, and logics, and is sustained throughout these shifts. We use terms relating to magic that have currency in everyday life in westernised societies, as a heuristic for thinking about how to navigate the ways in which theory and practice are divided by the rational processes of academic research and rhetoric. We consider the familiarity of the ineffability of everyday life and consider the ways in which the theoretical apparatus of institutional research asks us to frame this through the written, rational, and admissible.