This article presents a case study of the literacy, in the realm of literature, of D., an elderly woman with four years of formal schooling. Based on the analysis of the literacy story of D., this study investigates the relationship between literacy and identity construction. In order to settle the theoretical bases of the study, a distinction is drawn between the autonomous and ideological models of literacy. The concepts of literacy practice, event, agent, and agency are presented. We also review the concept of identity. The case study presents the literacy story of D., examining the uses of reading and writing by D. and her family since D.'s childhood to the present day. We could observe a close relation between D.'s literacy in the realm of literature and the gradual construction of a writer identity, which allows her to express her being-in-world, to recover and rebuild her childhood memories and to access new social groups.
Literacy; Literacy story; Literacy agent; Literacy agency; Identity construction