Title: Orality and literacy : the technologizing of the word /
Authors: Ong, Walter J.
Publisher: Methuen,
Year: 1982
Subjects: Language arts.; Oral tradition.; Language and culture.; Writing.; Oral-formulaic analysis.; Writing
Abstract: From the blurb: Profound changes in thought processes and in personality and social structures were brought about by the invention of writing and the transformation from one stage of consciousness to another: from primary oral cultures to literate ones. Walter Ong here surveys and interprets the extensive work done during the last few decades, by himself and others, on the differences between orality and literacy.
Contents: General editor's preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: -- 1: Orality Of Language: -- Literate mind and the oral past -- Did you say 'oral literature'? -- 2: Modern Discovery Of Primary Oral Cultures: -- Early awareness of oral tradition -- Homeric question -- Milman Parry's discovery -- Consequent and related work -- 3: Some Psychodynamics Of Orality: -- Sounded word as power and action -- You know what you can recall: mnemonics and formulas -- Further characteristics of orally based thought and expression -- i: Additive rather than subordinative -- ii: Aggregative rather than analytic -- iii: Redundant or 'copious' -- iv: Conservative or traditionalist -- v: Close to the human lifeworld -- vi: Agonistically toned -- vii: Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced -- viii: -- Homeostatic -- ix: Situational rather than abstract -- Oral memorization -- Verbomotor lifestyle -- Noetic role of heroic 'heavy' figures and of the bizarre -- Interiority of sound --^