Orality, Literacy, Neo-Orality


Literacy
Orality
Neo-Orality

Visual
(out of time; external)

Aural
(in time, evanescent; interior)

Audio
(in time, repeatable, disembodied)

External memory
(reference, dictionary)
- systematic lists, categories
- logical divisions, hierarchy

Internal memory, mnemonic
(narrative, myth, poetry)
- rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance
- formulas, cliche, slogan, epithet

Cultural memory
(icons, brands, jingles)
- all oral mnemonic devices
- logo, stereotype, tag line, hook

Analytic, logical
(syllogism, theorem)

Wholistic, analogical
(riddle, proverb)

Gestalt, symbol, image
(ad image, story)

Detached, objective
(uninvolved, "cool")

Involved, subjective, "Agonistically toned"
(empathetic, participatory)

Resonance or avoidance
("relate to", apathetic, cynical, resistance)

Words are inanimate, pointers
(signifying labels)

Words have power, are events in themselves (naming)

Brand names have iconic power and associations

Linear time --- > spatial

Cyclic time --- > repetitive

Cyclic templates & formats

Self-object detachment
(solitary, private)

Integrative
(groups, communal activity)

Demographic markets
(target consumer groups)

Abstract concepts & categories

Situational, concrete experience (life-world)

Life-world problem -> solution
Abstract concept -> image

Compact, edited, linear

Redundant, copious, additive

Sound-byte, repetitive

Originality, new ideas

Conservative, homeostatic, traditional

Turnover of new "improved" products
Collapsing of historical time into an "eternal present"

after Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy (1982)
Other References:
Eric Havelock: Preface to Plato

Jack Goody: The Domestication of the Savage Mind

Harold Innis: Empire and Communication

Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media

Frances Yates: The Art of Memory

Roman text: Ad Herennium (1st c. BC):

Memory for places (loci) easily grasped by the memory; well-lit, moderate size, uncrowded, distinctive, clear order

Images are forms, marks, simulacra, placed on definite loci; images for things (res), images for words (verba); distinct, unusual and striking images are preferred (richly adorned, comic, hideous, etc); creating a "persona" (per-sona); repetition is needed to fix it in memory

"The art of memory was a creator of imagery which must surely have flowed out into creative works of art and literature" (p.100)