53 pages • 1 hour read
Walter J. OngOrality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Cognitive and Social Effects of Literacy
A major focus of Orality and Literacy is the effects of literacy on society and on the mind of the individual. Ong states that writing is a technology, but one which has had an unparalleled impact on human cognition and on the structure and functioning of global society.
In Chapter 4, Ong discusses the progressive changes wrought on cognition and society by the introduction, proliferation, and internalization of literacy. The main cognitive effects of literacy stem from the fact that literacy essentially frees the mind from the mnemonic load of retaining and recalling conventional knowledge. Cognition is no longer restrained by a reliance on formulaic, easily memorable thought patterns, and so thoughts can become more abstract and innovative. Literacy also allows for and conditions more analytic thought patterns, leading to the deconstruction of preestablished norms and the ability to study all manner of fields and phenomena. Ong credits the unprecedented literacy of ancient Greek civilization with the blossoming of modern analytical philosophy and science.
Ong describes the differences between a primary oral society and the type of literate society with which his readers are familiar, although he does note that such differences are not solely due to the effects of said literacy, but also due to contemporaneous political, social, and technological advancements. The extent of the effects of literacy are implied in Ong’s presentation of alien characteristics of orality and oral society in Chapter 3. The unfamiliarity of oral characteristics indicates the extent to which the effects of literature have changed the norms of a non-literate society.
According to Ong, by increasing the cognitive resources and tools available to the collective human mind, literacy affects all facets of society. Writing becomes first a tool in restricted sectors, then a valuable trade, and finally an indispensable cornerstone to all kinds of study, bureaucracy, and industry. Many innovations and technologies of the modern era would be impossible to create or use without literacy. Naturally, the full extent of the potential impact of literacy on society is only gradually realized over many centuries. Residual orality remained a prominent characteristic of Western society long after the advent of writing, even with the introduction of print technology. The potency of literacy’s effects on an individual’s cognition, Ong notes, is also dependent on the degree in which they internalize that literacy, although even rudimentary literacy has been shown to have a significant effect on a person’s capacity for abstract and analytical thought.
The Characteristics of Oral and Literate Cultures
Ong presents orality as the natural state of humanity and writing as a hugely impactful technology that gradually changes the culture of an oral society into that of a literate society. Ong shows the differences between oral and literate cultures by showing diachronic changes (changes happening over time) to Western culture since the advent of writing and with the adoption of other communication technologies.
Oral culture, states Ong, is verbomotor: It functions on a person-interactive model where performance, face-to-face communication, and social activities are key. The necessity of retaining and reinforcing collective knowledge and wisdom leads oral thought to be formulaic and conservative, which is reflected in oral culture, too. Innovation and invention are secondary to adaptation, conservation, and the application of tried and true patterns. Literate cultures, in contrast, have the burden of collective memory eased by the preservative powers of writing. They can therefore focus cognitive energy on analysis, innovation, and forward momentum.
Ong uses the differences between narrative artforms in each culture to highlight the primary cultural distinctions between orality and literacy. Narrative is key to all verbal art and is a reflection of the values and characteristics of its home culture and society, as well as an influential force on society and perception. Oral narratives, such as the epic poems of Homer, are characterized by the need for economy and by their function as vehicles for established wisdom and knowledge. They are episodic and additive, featuring heavy type characters and focused on important public deeds. Narratives of a literate culture are more tightly plot-driven, with an introspective focus on complex characters and the capacity for irony.
A major influence on the characteristics of both oral and literate cultures is the dominant educational practices of their respective societies. Pedagogy reflects and reinforces the values and priorities of wider society, and is the foundation of all cultural output. In oral cultures, education is very much a matter of apprenticeship; skills and knowledge are gleaned through observation, imitation, and practice. Ong states that this reinforces interactive, procedural, and conservative aspects of oral culture. In early literate societies of the West through to the 20th century, the focus on rhetoric in education contributes to the predominance of residual orality and its associated agonistic characteristics in Western culture. The shift to literacy-focused pedagogy, the “3 Rs” of reading writing, and arithmetic, is a consequence of the greater internalization of literacy. This educational focus also fosters the more introspective, individualistic characteristics of literate culture.
The Impact of Communication Technologies on Human Interaction and Cultural Development
Ong identifies three major communication technologies that have impacted human interaction and cultural development. These are writing, printing, and methods of electronic communication such as telephones, radios, and televisions. Published in 1982, Orality and Literacy predates further significant advances in communication technology such as the internet, mobile phones, and social media. These modern technologies of the digital revolution, though significant, are therefore not discussed in this edition of the text. Ong also acknowledges that many of the changes presented as a direct result of the introduction and internalization of communication technologies were also shaped by other concurrent social, political, and intellectual developments.
The transition from orality to literacy was a gradual process, meaning that the impacts of the communication technology of writing happened in stages over the course of generations. Similarly, residual orality and elements of chirographic culture persisted even past the introduction of print technology, and right through the recent advent of electronic communication technologies. According to Ong, human interaction was most impacted by literacy in the fact that writing made it possible for people to interact from a physical and temporal distance, with the context of the utterance removed. Print reinforced this sense of distance and removal and contributed to a culture of increased individualism and introspection. With this widespread internalization of literacy, the traditionally oral art of rhetoric fell out of fashion in pedagogical spheres, removing the agonistic, verbomotor influence of residual orality on Western culture. Culturally, another major impact of literacy and print was visited upon the verbal artform of the narrative. Oral narratives were episodic, additive, and focused on heavy characters and public deeds. With the introduction of writing and print, narratives became more tightly plotted and climactic, characters more complex and mundane, and focus more inward-facing and introspective.
Electronic communication technologies both reinforced and undermined the literacy-centric society of the mid and late 20th century. Radios, televisions, telephones, and early computers were all dependent on writing and print technologies to function. Their creation, maintenance, and use all required the use of analytic cognitive processes conditioned by literacy, as well as significant stored and composite knowledge impossible to conceive of in an oral society. However, Ong identifies these technologies as causing a phase of “secondary orality” in Western culture. These technologies allow for long distance and mass oral communication on a hitherto unmatched scale, thereby bringing certain aspects of oral culture—speech making, public debate, conversation—back to the center of modern culture and everyday life. Human interaction once more came to center around the oral interactive sphere. This secondary orality is distinct, however, from a primary orality unaffected by literacy. The cognitive effects of literacy remain, individualism is still a predominant cultural trend, and oral performances are now both repeatable and self-conscious. Ong predicts, quite correctly, that further technological advancements would soon lead to additional developments in our society’s relationship with both orality and literacy.
