Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece [Paperback]

Explores the role of written and oral communication in Greece.Recent theoretical debates about literacy and orality are examined and the uses of writing and oral communication explored in the first systematic examination of their social and historical significance in ancient Greece.Recent theoretical debates about literacy and orality are examined and the uses of writing and oral communication explored in the first systematic examination of their social and historical significance in ancient Greece.This book explores the role of written and oral communication in Greece and is the first systematic and sustained treatment at this level. It examines the recent theoretical debates about literacy and orality and explores the uses of writing and oral communication, and their interaction, in ancient Greece. It sets the significance of written and oral communication as much as possible in their social and historical context, and stresses the specifically Greek characteristics in their use. It draws together the results of recent studies and suggests further avenues of inquiry. All ancient evidence is translated.1. Introduction; 2. Literacy and orality; 3. Oral poetry; 4. The coming of the alphabet: literacy and oral communication in archaic Greece; 5. Beyond the rationalist view of writing: between 'literate' and 'oral'; 6. Orality, performance, and memorial; 7. Literacy and the state: the profusion of writing; Epilogue: the Roman world; Bibliographical essay; Bibliography. Rosalind Thomas explores the roles and interactions of writing and oral communication in eight readable chapters, providing both a broadly informed overview of basic issues and sensible insights of her own....The whole is dotted with valuable specific information and insights. The presentation is fluid and fluent.... Carol Thomas, Bryn Mawr Classical Review ...an excellent, obliquely angled introduction to the study of ancient Greece as a whole. James Davidson, Times Literary Supplement ...a work lÃÊ