Literacy and Orality [Paperback]

Distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them.A detailed examination of the relationship between orality and literacy includes the traditions upon which they are based and the functions which they serve as well as the psychological and linguistic processes that influence them.A detailed examination of the relationship between orality and literacy includes the traditions upon which they are based and the functions which they serve as well as the psychological and linguistic processes that influence them.In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which people exploit the particular resources of speech and writing for special purposes, such as building communities, creating records, and specializing genres, such as prose fiction, enhancing private study and meditation, and enhancing the specialization and organization of knowledge.Preface; Introduction David R. Olson and Nancy Torrance; Part I. Oral And Literate Aspects Of Culture And Cognition: 1. The oral-literature equation: a formula for the modern mind Eric Havelock; 2. A plea for research on lay literary Ivan Illich; 3. Oral metalanguage Carol Fleisher Feldman; 4. Rational thought in oral culture and literate decontextualization J. Peter Denny; 5. Cree literacy in thl£$