If the topic is of interest, this short book will be a good overview. Writing, in the strict sense of the word, the technology which has shaped and powered the intellectual activity of modern man, was a very late development in human history. Professor walter ongs book explores some of the profound changes in our thought processes, personality and social structures which are the result, at various stages of our history, of the development of speech, writing and print. Given the influence of the series and particularly of orality and literacy ong s most widely known book. Expanding walter ongs theory of orality and literacy through a. The tec hnologizing of the w ord is still a thoughtprovoking, potent and topical stud y. Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Document resume ed 372 459 cs 508 664 author palmeri, anthony. Wright, marked the thirtieth anniversary of walter ong s influential orality and literacy. In the spring term 2012 series of the london nineteenthcentury studies seminar at the institute of english studies. With regard to oral tradition and primary orality he draws on pioneering work by milman parry, albert b. Ganyi department of english and literary studies, university of calabar abstract. Like primary orality, secondary orality has generated a strong group sense, for listening to spoken words forms hearers into a group, a true audience, just as reading written or printed texts turns.
Orality and literacy the technologizing of the word pdf his major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy. For those of us raised into the literate modern world, it is easy to forget the written word is a technology invented by human beings. Orality and literacy is but the latest in a series of books in which ong has explored the implications of this revised understanding of human identity. My purpose is not so much as to critique ong though there will be some of that, but rather to elaborate what we might mean by orality and. Walter jackson ong sj november 30, 1912 august 12, 2003 was an american jesuit priest, professor of english literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher. It is possible to generalize somewhat about the psychodynamics of primary oral cultures, that is, of oral cultures untouched by writing. As the paradoxical relationships of orality and literacy in rhetoric and learned latin suggest, the transition from orality to literacy was slow ong 1967b, pp. An oral culture likewise has nothing corresponding to how to do it manuals for trades such manuals in fact are extremely rare and always crude even in chirographic cultures, coming into existence only after print has been. Like all technologies, literacy has the potential to deepen our appreciation of the world and ourselves. The series of events in 2012, coconvened by james emmott and tom f. In this article, i wish to explore orality and literacy as complex and interacting notions. In orality and literacy, ong discusses the differences between oral and literate cultures, and makes an argument that thought processes in literate cultures are different than those in primary oral cultures. Secondary orality is a phenomenon of post literacy, whereas oral residue is a stage in the transition from preliterate to literate. These illuminating essays contextualize ong within recent intellectual history, and display his works continuing force in the ongoing study of the relationship between literature and the media.
Ong s extraordinary orality and literacy which documents the invention of writing and its effect on culture. Pdf files that visitors can read online or print out. Document resume 4uthor orality and literacythe real difference. Ong professor ong has managed to synthesize an incredible amount of thought and at the same time has carried some of his earlier ideas still further. Secondary orality is a phenomenon of post literacy, whereas oral residue is a. Ongs classic work provides a fascinating insight into the social effects of oral, written, printed and electronic. Orality and literacy the technologizing of the word pdf. This includes contrasts between virtuality, literacy, and.
Extensive references to recent scholarship on orality, literacy and the study of knowledge technologies, tracing changes in how we know what we know. Pub date 18 nov 93 note 16p paper presented at the annual meeting of the. Ong on the differences between orality and literacy walter ong characterises the main differences between the languages of oral and literate cultures in these terms. Ong, especially in his book orality and literacy and. Ong is available at in several formats for your ereader. Ong s classic work provides a fascinating insight into the social effects of oral, written, printed and electronic technologies, and their impact on philosophical, theological, scientific and literary. The changes, according to ong, have been momentous. Chapter 3 orality and literacy revisited by gilles gravelle. Thirtythree years ago walter ong published his lifes work in orality and literacy. Document resume ed 372 459 cs 508 664 author palmeri, anthony j. Oct 15, 2010 a primary oral culture is defined by walter j. Ong 2002, ong sums up his own work over the previous three decades as well as the work of numerous other scholars.
Ong, sj grows out of high literacy cultures, depending for its invention and. As gee writes, viewed this way, the speechwriting or orality literacy distinction begins to become problematic. Ong gives a history of oral tradition which was used well before written language, and so his early chapters reflect on the oral character of language and. Ong 19122003 is highly regarded within the universal view camp. A closing chapter that follows up ong s work on orality and literacy in relation to evolving media forms, with a discussion of recent criticisms of ong s approach, and an assessment of his concept of the evolution of consciousness. Ong this classic work explores the vast differences between oral and literate cultures offering a very clear account of the intellectual, literary and social effects of writing, print and electronic technology. The bibliography provided is both valuable and extensive as it not only. Literacy and orality wolfgang raible, university of freiburg i.
His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and. It is primary by contrast with the secondary orality of presentday hightechnology culture, in which a new orality is sustained by telephone, radio, television, and other electronic devices that depend for their existence and functioning on writing and print. The former has no knowledge of the written language whereas the latter is rooted from the oral culture and is. Ong calls writing a technological revolution that not only. Recent developments in orality and memory in the study of jesus and the gospels scholars are increasingly recognizing that a literary paradigm, such as that which characterizes the modern western world, is not appropriate for understanding the transmission of the jesus tradition and the composition of the gospels. Ong 1982 represents efforts to understand how orality and literacy shape cognition and cultures. Deeply typographic folk forget to think ofwords as primarilyoral, as events, and hence as necessar ily powered. This post is the first in a series of notes on walter ongs book orality and literacy. Walter ong s orality and literacy is something of a classic. The technologizing of the word 1982, he attempts to.
Sep 02, 2009 walter ongs orality and literacy is something of a classic. Jan 23, 2007 professor mindy mcadamss presentation about some of the key ideas from walter j. A closing chapter that follows up ong s work on orality and literacy in relation to evolving media forms, with a discussion of recent criticisms of ong s. He notes the benefits of literacy, but his foundational point is that writing and subsequent print culture came from something from a rich and welldeveloped culture of speech speech orality is more basic to humanity than literacy. Knowledge acquisition, like all human interaction in the world depends on and is. History of communication, gozum 2018 9212018 orality and literacy questions what is. Walter ongs orality and literacy is a classic work that describes orality in considerable scholarly detail. Orality is the use of speech rather than writing as a means of communication, especially in communities where the tools of literacy are unfamiliar to the majority of the population. Topics orality collection opensource language english.
Politics of orality orality and literacy in ancient greece, vol. Ong, sj grows out of high literacy cultures, depending for its invention and operation on the widespread cultivation of writing and reading. Communication and consciousness is the last area to touch upon in dealing with ong and the word. His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and changed human consciousness.
It explores the changes in consciousness that have been wrought by the introduction of literacy and then print into human culture. Ong walter jackson ong sj november 30, 1912 august 12, 2003 was an american jesuit priest, professor of english literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher. Communication theoryorality and literacy wikibooks, open. Ong s classic work provides a fascinating insight into the social effects of oral, written, printed and electronic technologies, and their impact on philosophical, theological, scientific. While ong s writings have been subject to critique, their influence remains significant, drawing attention to the importance of studies in cognition for the field of orality and literacy. Ong noted the development of consciousness through stages within culture. The first volume appeared at a time when people were. Given the influence of the series and particularly of orality and literacyongs most widely known book. Ongs classic work provides a fascinating insight into the social effects of oral, written, printed and electronic technologies, and their impact on philosophical, theological, scientific and literary thought.
Chapter 3 of walter ongs orality and literacy addresses the characteristics of primary oral cultures in relation to residual oral, chirographic and typographic cultures. And he projects his analysis further into the age of mass electronic communications. Primary orality exists in communities that have no written language and little or no acquaintance with reading and writing. This post is the first in a series of notes on walter ong s book orality and literacy. Extensive references to recent scholarship on orality, literacy and the study of knowledge technologies. Reflections from the domain of bible translation written by dick kroneman a senior translator probes the multilayered nature of orality.
Ongs conclusions in orality and literacy 1982 are generally regarded as accurate depictions, and serve as the foundation for development of theories, strategies, and methodologies. Ong i style the orality of a culture totally untouched by any knowledge or writing or print, primary orality. Ongs work on orality and literacy that to look up the word. Greek transliterations of near eastern languages in the. Orality and literacy 25 years later semantic scholar. Classical scholars, from milman parrythe prime mover in the orality literacy universethrough albert lord, eric havelock. Among his earlier works, four in particular might be singled out as being of greatest interest to the reader who wants to become acquainted with his thought. The middle ages used texts far more than ancient greece and rome, teachers lectured on texts in the universities, and yet never tested knowledge or intellectual. As walter ong observes in orality and literacy, the way we communicate whether it be through voice, writing, or print changes how we think and behave. If the inline pdf is not rendering correctly, you can download the pdf file here. His chapter entitled some psychodynamics of orality has been particularly influential in evangelical treatments of orality.
The book, so far, is a corker, and looks to have significant implications for any discussion of markets as conversations and the like. Orality and literacy two crucial pathways into written language. A scenesetting chapter that situates ong s work within the historical and disciplinary context of postwar americanism and the rise of communication and media studies. The book, so far, is a corker, and looks to have significant implications for any discussion of markets as conversations and the. Dec 10, 2012 ong does not waste ink in praise of reading and writing. Recent developments in orality and memory a paper dallas. In the book orality and literacy, walter ong mentions a primary oral culture and a chirographic culture. View notes week 3 orality and literacy teaching lesson. In many respects, this is where one of ongs most famous works, orality and literacy.
Secondary orality should not be confused with oral residue in which a culture has not fully transitioned to literate written culture and retains many of the characteristics of primary oral cultures. Professor mindy mcadamss presentation about some of the key ideas from walter j. The technologizing of the word 30th anniversary ed. The book was republished in 2002 and again on its 30 th anniversary in 2012, showing enduring interest in ongs scholarship and ideas. One of the best and most challenging books ive read in recent months is walter j. Secondary orality is both remarkably like and remarkably unlike primary orality. The moral education of the elite in fourthcentury athens. The framing of orality as a preference or tendency encourages its place within the paragone of the printed and spoken word, and suggests a singlesensory conception of media that orality exists in a dialectical relationship with literacy, and that communication is a competition between eye and ear.
Journal of communication, v30 n1 p197204 win 1980 treats orality and literacy in two ways. Walter ong s orality and literacy 19763a fewyears before. Pdf orality and literacy download full pdf book download. Orality and literacy 25 years later centre for the study of. A closing chapter that follows up ongs work on orality and literacy in relation to evolving media forms, with a discussion of recent criticisms of ongs approach, and an assessment of his concept of the evolution of consciousness. Ong on the differences between orality and literacy new. As i read ong, i kept having what i will call ongmoments. The crux of ongs argument in this chapter is that it is extremely difficult for literate people to truly understand the nature of a primary oral culture because. View orality and literacy research papers on academia.
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