Orality and Literacy
The Technologizing of the Word
Walter J. 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. Orality and Literacy should
become a classic. It is eminently assignable for undergraduate courses' - Professor
John Ahern
'No comparable work on this important subject exists. Thanks to the lucidity of its
style and presentation of complex thought, this is a work that will be accessible and
useful...it will be the standard introduction to this topic for some years to come' -
Choice
'Professor Walter Ong's new 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. And he projects his analysis
further into the age of mass electronic communications media...the cumulative impact of
the book is dazzling. Read this book. Literature will never be the same again. And neither
will you' - Robert Giddings, Tribune
'This admirably lucid book...has obvious implications for philosophy, literature,
linguistics, sociology, psychology, education, and Biblical studies...I believe this is
the best book Ong has published' - Thomas J. Farrell, Cross Currents
Contents:
General Editor's Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, 1. The orality of language, 2.
The modern discovery of primary oral cultures, 3. Some psychodynamics of orality, 4.
Writing restructures consciousness, 5. Print, space and closure, 6. Oral memory, the story
line and characterization, 7. Some theorems, Bibliography, Index.
200 pages
