Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) is the author of Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World. He was a pioneer in the study of orality and one of the foremost American academics of the 20th century within the fields of rhetoric and literary history. Ong was widely recognized and highly regarded for his work in academia, particularly his numerous publications and lectures on the cultural and cognitive impacts of transition from orality to literacy.

Ong was a Jesuit priest ordained in the Roman Catholic church, and he brought his professional expertise on matters of Christian theology to his studies in religious literature and history. He was highly educated in his field, with a PhD in English from Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in English and Licentiates of philosophy and sacred theology from Saint Louis University. These qualifications served him in his academic career, as Ong applied his diverse expertise to major research questions of the day. His doctoral research on the 16th-century French educational philosopher and scholar Ramus saw him granted a French knighthood as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Ong’s academic career spanned seven decades, and he was an active and influential member of numerous scholarly institutions and associations during that time. He taught for many years as a professor of English literature at Saint Louis University and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was active on the international lecture circuit, speaking on his work to diverse crowds of experts throughout his career. Additionally, he was elected as president of the Milton Society of America in 1967 and the Modern Language Association in 1978. His active and ongoing involvement with leading researchers and academic bodies kept him perpetually up to date on cutting edge research and theories of his day and allowed him to develop his own theories and approaches in tandem with new generations of innovation.

Although his perspective was firmly rooted in a 20th-century US context, due to its high quality and continued relevance, Ong’s work is to this day considered part of the body of ‘contemporary scholarship’ on rhetoric and orality. His most striking and longstanding contributions to academia were in the fields of rhetoric and orality, particularly his exploration of the cultural and cognitive impacts of literacy. Ong coined much of the basic technical terminology used to discuss the topic and raised its profile as an avenue of interdisciplinary study, sparking much subsequent research. Ong’s name has since become synonymous with the study of orality. Orality and Literacy is widely considered Ong’s magnus opus on the topic. In the 40 years since its publication, the text has been cited in countless academic papers, articles, and textbooks. It has been reprinted numerous times and translated into almost a dozen languages worldwide. A 30th-anniversary edition of the book including additional chapters by academic John Hartley on recent technological advances was published in celebration of Ong’s 100th birthday.