Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

Walter J. Ong

Routledge & K. Paul, 1982 - Language and culture - 201 pages

'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 Literacyshould 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

What people are saying

Review: Orality and Literacy

User Review  - Plamen Miltenoff - Goodreads

p. 9 human beings in primary oral cultures, those untouched by writing in any form, learn a great deal and possess an practice great wisdom, but they do not "study." they learn by apprenticeship ...

Review: Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

User Review  - Sara - Goodreads

Okay, so this is a challenging read and was actually one of my college textbooks, but it taught me invaluable things about: the nature of communication, including interaction between people, and how ...

About the author

Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), was University Professor of Humanities at Saint Louis University, where he taught for thirty-six years. His books include Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness, Interfaces of the WordStudies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture, and Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture, all from Cornell; Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word; The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History; and Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word; New accents
• Author: Walter J. Ong
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Routledge & K. Paul, 1982
• ISBN: 0415027969, 9780415027960
• Length: 201 pages