Orality and Literacy (New Accents)

About this book

Walter J. 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. This thirtieth anniversary edition coinciding with Ongs centenary year reproduces his best-known and most influential book in full and brings it up to date with two new exploratory essays by cultural writer and critic John Hartley. Hartley provides: A scene-setting chapter that situates Ongs work within the historical and disciplinary context of post-war Americanism and the rise of communication and media studies; 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; Extensive references to recent scholarship on orality literacy and the study of knowledge technologies tracing changes in how we know what we know. 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 as well as that of psychology education and sociological thought.