Orality and Literacy
How the shift from spoken to written communication restructured thought, memory, and culture, and the debates this thesis has provoked.
Definition
Orality is the condition of cultures relying on spoken communication without writing; literacy is the use of writing systems. The study of their relationship concerns how the technology of writing reshapes language, thought, and society.
Scope
This topic examines the contrast between oral and literate cultures and the claim that writing transforms cognition, social organization, and the transmission of knowledge. It covers Ong's psychodynamics of orality, Havelock's account of the Greek transition to literacy, the Goody-Watt literacy thesis, and the 'New Literacy Studies' critique that treats literacy as a social practice rather than an autonomous technology.
Core questions
- How does oral communication differ from written communication?
- Does literacy transform cognition and social organization?
- What did the shift to literacy mean in ancient Greece?
- Is literacy an autonomous technology or a social practice?
Key concepts
- Primary orality
- Secondary orality
- Literacy thesis
- Autonomous and ideological models
- Externalization of memory
Key theories
- Psychodynamics of orality
- Ong's characterization of oral thought as additive, aggregative, situational, and formulaic, contrasted with the analytic and abstract tendencies fostered by writing.
- The literacy thesis
- Goody and Watt's argument that alphabetic literacy enabled new forms of logic, history, and skepticism by externalizing and fixing speech.
- Ideological model of literacy
- Street's New Literacy Studies critique, treating literacy as a set of socially situated practices rather than a single technology with uniform cognitive effects.
History
Mid-twentieth-century scholars including Havelock, Goody, and Ong argued that the transition from orality to literacy had profound cognitive and cultural consequences, a position often called the 'literacy thesis' or 'great divide'. From the 1980s, the New Literacy Studies, led by Street, challenged this as too autonomous and ethnocentric, reframing literacy as plural and socially embedded.
Debates
- Great divide versus continuity
- Whether orality and literacy mark a sharp cognitive divide or whether literacy practices are continuous with and embedded in oral and social life.
Key figures
- Walter J. Ong
- Eric Havelock
- Jack Goody
- Ian Watt
- Brian Street
Related topics
Seminal works
- ong1982
- havelock1963
- goodywatt1963
- street1984
Frequently asked questions
- What is 'secondary orality'?
- Ong's term for the new orality of electronic media such as radio and television, which depends on prior literacy yet revives oral qualities of immediacy and group sense.
- Why is the 'literacy thesis' controversial?
- Because critics argue it overstates writing's autonomous cognitive effects and ignores how literacy varies with social context and use.