Language and (Hyper)Literacy Prepared for Eng 444 section 1, “Literacy and Hyperliteracy” Fall...
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Transcript of Language and (Hyper)Literacy Prepared for Eng 444 section 1, “Literacy and Hyperliteracy” Fall...
Language and (Hyper)Literacy
Prepared for Eng 444 section 1,
“Literacy and Hyperliteracy”Fall 2002
Webster Newbold, Instructor
Stages of Development of “Human Consciousness,” or
Frameworks for Thought, Knowledge, and Expression
OverviewStages defined by dominant mode of language
useOral—spoken word predominates (no history or concept of writing) Chirographic—writing in manuscript predominatesTypographic—writing in print predominatesCybernetic—expression in digital form predominates; writing mixes with other audio-visual forms in complex and dynamic ways
Overview--Time FrameStage
Predominant inHigh Culture
Predominant inGeneral Culture
Oral To about 500 BC To about 1600 AD
Chirographic To about 1500 AD To about 1800 AD
Typographic To about 2000 BC Into near future
Cybernetic Current time ?
Time Frame for Primary Orality
(Varies with cultures)
Western Culture—until pre-Classical Greece, about 1,000-800 BC
Characteristics of Primary Orality
Words are Power and Action
Words exist as long as they are going OUT of existence
Words are events, not objects
Religious implications
Oral Knowledge Must Be Recallable
“Patterning” of words essential (rhythm, formulae)
Knowledge is recalled as proverbial or epic (short durable, long durable forms)
Proverbial wisdom forms/guides thought
Verbal Memory Works Differently in “Song”
Rarely “verbatim” or word-for-word
Uses modular strategies in real time
Performances vary within consistent framework (response to live audience dynamic)
Sound Comes from the Interior
Sound reveals hidden nature or beings, objects
Sight reflects externals, is unreliable
Hearing is holistic and unifying--happens all at once, everywhere
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Orality Affects Thought and Expression
It is additive rather than subordinative in discourse structure
“Aggregative” rather than analytic in thought
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
It is redundant or “copious”
Hearers can only process language so fast--repetition aids communication
Repetition and expansion aid production (orator thinking in real time)
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
It is conservative, traditionalist
Hard-won knowledge is guarded carefully
Folkways are preserved as valuable
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
Orality is Close to the “Human Lifeworld”
Knowledge has to be connected to life to have meaning
Abstraction is nearly impossible (it is separate from life and action)
Concepts are understood situationally
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
Oral Interchange is Agonistically Toned
Link to human lifeworld retains link to conflict
Disease, disaster, death often personalized--causing conflict
Ritual praise and blame common worldwide
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
Oral Cultures are Homeostatic
Knowledge serves to preserve the culture as
it is (homeostasis)
“Truth” changes to fit current circumstances
Orality Affects Thought and Expression
Oral Cultures are Situational Rather than Abstract
Concepts understood operationally
(“hammer, saw, log, hatchet”)
Abstract thinkers held in suspicion
Orality Affects Thought and Expression –Song and Literature
Characteristics of Oral Song and Story
Narrative--
Loose, episodic; begins in middle of the "action"
Voice and presence of the singer is relatively prominent
Frequent "set speeches" between antagonists
Orality Affects Thought and Expression –Song and Literature
Characterization–
"Heavy" characters--gods and heroes
Character types revealing sociocultural roles
"Flat" characters--little psychologizing
Orality Affects Thought and Expression –Song and Literature
Language
Metrical (sung)-Generated in real time
"Formalistic" or modular tone, created by
Repeated epithets
Repeated formulae
Review
•Words are Power and Action
•Oral Knowledge Must Be Recallable
•Verbal Memory Works Differently in “Song”
•Sound Comes from the Interior
Review ctd
• Orality Affects Thought and Expression…it is
Additive
Redundant or “copious” Conservative, traditionalist
Close to the Human Lifeworld Agonistic
Homeostatic
Situational Rather than Abstract
From Manuscript to Typographic Culture
From Walter Ong, Literacy and Orality
Chapter 5, “Print, space, and closure”
Chapter 6, “Oral memory, the story line, and characterization”
Time Frame for Manuscript Culture
In Western cultures, approximately 800 BC through 1500-1600 AD
Characteristics of Manuscript Culture
Manuscript Culture
Hearing-dominantWriting cues oral performance (e.g., reading aloud, in groups or alone)
Writing “recycled knowledge” back into oral world (e.g., reading lessons in school; writing to practice rhetorical exercises)
Memory retrieval based on sound--no visual retrieval practicable
Manuscript Culture
Producer-oriented
Copyists, “scholars” originated and controlled MS texts
Texts open-ended--copyists, readers could become part of them (scholae)
Manuscript Culture
Homeostatic
MS writing allows conveying of some knowledge over time
MS writing culture is traditional, conservative, preserving bias toward orality
Key factor = socio-cultural aspects of literacy (not enough text, not enough readers within economic limitations)
Time Frame for Typographic Culture
(Western culture)
From approximately 1700-1800 AD to 2000 AD
Characteristics of Typographic Culture
Typographic Culture
Dynamic
Shift is slow at first (1450-1800)
Change accelerates with Industrial Revolution and machine press (1800-1950)
Change increases, complications abound with advent of media and digital culture (1950--current)
Typographic Culture
Sight-dominant
Reading can be rapid, silentKnowledge can be directly gained from print source, privatelyMemory retrieval becomes visually based (indexes embed words in space)Print documents develop labels for books as identical “objects” (titles and title pages) Typography organizes visual space as knowledge (words objectified; graphic representation)“Typographic space,” not just writing, becomes a total, visual communication environment
Typographic Culture
Sight-dominant ctd
Dictionaries list, control decontextualized words; correctness becomes issuePeople can think of their own knowledge as objectified and neutralPrinted book is “closed”--cannot be queried or changed
Strongly implies the book covers all of its subjectEncourages readers to think their knowledge is also complete
Typographic Culture
Consumer-oriented
Final product is the goal of the printing/publishing process (rapid, silent reading creates more reader demand)Machine-produced print is automated, detached: an object for consumption
“Reading public” gains strength, consumes fiction and non-fiction
Narrative is in demand with readers; features of “high literacy” become increasingly prominent and dominant
Typographic Culture—High Literacy
Story takes primary shape by means of a tight climactic plot
The unity among all phases of the plot is made explicit and pervasive
Action rises to a climax, then resolves in denouement
Typographic Culture—High Literacy
Visual elements are prominent
The environment in which characters live and take
action is fully presented--natural world; human
environments (city) etc.
Imagery is often concretely presented and linked
to story's themes
Typographic Culture—High Literacy
The narrator can be abstracted into the "omniscient eye" with
a detached "voice"
Narration can get inside characters' thoughts
The narrator can be and usually is depersonalized--not tied to a specific human being
Narration can present varied perspectives (points-of-view) on the characters and actions
Frequently, purpose of narration is to illuminate character
Typographic Culture—High Literacy
Characterization is a major focus of a written story
Major characters or protagonists tend to be
individualized, "round"
Characters develop and change like real humans
with faults and limitations
Self-reflection is common
Typographic Culture
Secondary Orality
Print becomes invisible, underlying structure for Television
Film
Telecommunications
Popular and Educational Computing
Typographic Culture
Secondary Orality
Is “like” primary orality in its
Group sense
Promotion of “oratory”
Typographic Culture
Secondary Orality
Is unlike primary orality in itsImmense unseen audience (“Global Village” of the media) Dilution of “oratory”; no spontaneous oral “combat” but weak “debates”Reliance on PowerPoint. No good speaker ever needs a visual support framework!
Some Conjectures about Digital Culture
Digital technology extends capabilities of print
world (first generation):
“Desktop publishing” duplicates older activities
Digital text often solidified on paper for comprehension, exchange
Some Conjectures about Digital Culture
BUT--DT transcends print world (second generation)
Flexibility, changeability of text becomes the normDuplicationHypertext
Graphic element becomes increasingly significant
Some Conjectures about Digital Culture
Enables “return” of oral elements
In email and real-time chat
Graphic “iconography” :^] (8^/
“Brings People Together”
Instant messaging; CU C ME audio/video conferencing; newsgroups; MOOs; other virtual communities
Key Questions to Follow
How has “takeover” of digital textuality changed the pattern once again, in relation to
Dominant sense and sensory processingWriting, reading, expressing
Patterns of consumption and production e.g., Internet commerce, “dot coms,” Napster
Impetus for cultural changeHas DT brought people “together” productively, and will it continue to do so?