The Muse Learns to Write: Reflections on Orality and Literacy from Antiquity to the PresentWhen oral culture becomes literate, in what way does human consciousness itself change? And how does the new form of communication affect the content and meaning of texts? In this book, one of the most original and penetrating thinkers in Greek studies describes the transformation from orality to literacy in classical times and reflects upon its continued meaning for us today. "Fresh insights into the orality-literacy shift in human consciousness from one who has long been studying this shift in ancient Greece and has now brought his vast learning and reflections to bear on our own times. This book is for a wide audience and calls for thoroughly rethinking current views on language, thought, and society from classical scholarship through modern philosophy, anthropology, and poststructuralism."--Walter J. Ong "All in all, we have in this book the summary statement of one of the great pioneers in the study of oral and literate culture, fascinating in its scope and rewarding in its sophistication. As have his other works, this book will contribute mightily to curing the biases resulting from our own literacy."--J. Peter Denny, Canadian Journal of Linguistics "An extremely useful summary and extension of the revisionist thinking of Eric Havelock, whom most classicists and comparatists would rank among the premier classical scholars of the last three decades. . . . The book presents important (though controversial) ideas in. . . an available format."--Choice |
Contents
Introducing the Muse | 19 |
Radio the Rediscovery of Rhetoric | 30 |
Can a Text Speak? | 44 |
Speech Put in Storage | 54 |
The General Theory of Primary Orality | 63 |
The Special Theory of Greek Orality | 79 |
The Special Theory of Greek Literacy | 98 |
The Special Theories on Trial | 117 |
| 127 | |
| 135 | |
Common terms and phrases
acoustic Adam Parry Aeschylus antiquity Athenian Athens become century B.C. chapter collision communication composed concept consciousness culture described didactic discourse dramatic echo effect epic epigraphy Euripides existence fact fifth century formula function Greece Greek alphabet Greek literacy Greek literature Greek orality guage Harold Innis Havelock 1978a Hebrew Heraclitus Herodotus Hesiod high classic human idiom Iliad invention kind later Lévi-Strauss linguistic Luria McLuhan means memory ment metaphor Milman Parry mind Muse Mycenae narrative nonliterate occurred oral poetry oral societies oral-literate equation oralist orality and literacy original Parry performance person philosophers Pindar poems poets pre-Socratic Preface to Plato preserved primary orality problem prose replaced role Rousseau scholars script social Socrates Socratic Problem song Sophocles special theory speech spoken storage language story style survival syntax term textual Theogony theory of Greek things thought tion tradition University Press verb verse visual vocabulary