In this article, we discuss some concepts about literacy, especially those presented in the English language literature. We criticize the autonomous model, emphasizing that it defends, implicitly, the great divide theory, and we show how the ideology of this model, in Brazil, reflects itself both in the teacher´s discourse and in their pedagogical work. In opposition, a socio-historical approach is presented, as it is proposed by Tfouni. According to this approach, literacy is not confused with

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... skills to read and write. In this conception, literacy is conceived as a process embedded in a "continuum", which is investigated taking in consideration the transformations that occur in one society when its activities are all permeated by a system of writing. The theoretical postulates of "French" discourse analysis, in association with some contributions from Lacanian psychoanalysis, help us to refine this approach to literacy, especially with the inclusion of Authorship, with its components: dispersion and drift, so that we could be able to show that authorship is present both in oral and in written productions. A reflection is also carried out, about the fact that schools almost never take orality into account, and never consider it as a discourse where authorship can install itself, as it frequently happens in written texts. We stress, finally, that the discursive approach to literacy is not an idealistic, nor a romantic one, given that the lack of opportunities and the exclusion, together with the prohibition to occupy dominant discursive positions, are marks of the subject who can not read and write, even if he/she may have a higher degree of literacy.