The Muse Learns To Write: Reflections on Orality and Literacy from Antiquity to the Present

156 Pages·2016·7.67 MB·English

by  Eric A. Havelock

The Mure
Learns to Wi4ite
Reflections on Orality and Literacy
from Antiquity to the Present
Eric A. Havelock
THE MUSE LEARNS TO WRITE

THE MUSE LEARNS
TO WRITE
Reflections on Orality and Literacy
from Antiquity to -the Present
E R I C A. H A VE L 0 C K
Yale University Press
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
Copyright © 1986 by Eric A. Havelock.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole
or in part, in any form (beyond that
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108
of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.
DesignbeydS usaPn.F illainodns eitn
Garamon#d3 typbey G raphCiocm positIinocn.,
Printientd h Uen ited SotfAa mteersi bcya
VaiBla llPorue ssB,i nghamtNo.Yn .,
LibraofrC yo ngrCeastsa loging-inD-aPtuab lication
HaveloEcrki,Ac l fred.
Them usel eartnows r ite.
Bibliogrpa.p hy:
Incluidnedse x.
1. Oraclo mmunication-Hi2s.tW orriyt.t en
communication-H3i.sC toomrmyu.n ica­
tion-Greece-HiIs.Tt iotrlye..
P90.H381 986 001.54'826- -9084
ISBN0 -300-03741(-c4l oth)
0-300-0438(2p-b1k .)
Thep apientr h ibso omke etthsge u idelfionpree srma nence
anddu rabiolfti hCteoy m mitotnPe reo ducGtuiiodenl ines
foBro oLko ngevoiftt yhC eo unocniL li brary
Resources.
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For Christine

Contents
Acknowledgments 1x
1. Program of Investigation 1
2. Introducing the Muse 19
3. The Modern Discovery of Orality 24
4. Radio & the Rediscovery of Rhetoric 30
5. Cross-Cultural Collisions 34
6. Can a Text Speak? 44
7. Speech Put in Storage 54
8. The General Theory of Primary Orality 63
9. The Special Theory of Greek Orality 79
10. The Special Theory of Greek Literacy 98
11. The Special Theories on Trial 117
Bibliography 127
Index 135

Acknowledgments
l
nsofur as the oral-lirerare problem has increasingly
become not just a Greek problem but a modern one, readers of
the present volume will recognize a debt owed to the work of
Walter J. Ong, whose own Orality and Literacy ( 1982), a mas­
terly survey, has provided foundation for the synthesis at­
tempted here. As he has freely acknowledged my usefulness in
dealing with Greek antiquity, I also gratefully acknowledge
how much I have used him for my dealings with modernity.
Closer to home, I owe much to the intellectual support and
personal sympathy of John Hollander, whose warm advocacy
has been the more welcome as coming from within a depart­
ment at Yale where the voice of classical antiquity has always
been able to count on a sympathetic hearing.
Where my argument has ventured to seek support from the
history of archaic Greek art, necessary guidance has been sup­
plied by.Christine Havelock.
My manuscript has received close and sympathetic reading
from the Yale University Press, in the person of its editor Ellen
Graham. Surely, few authors can claim the good fortune of
such helpful revision applied to matters not only of detail but
of general expression.
My i:ext also owes much to the scrutiny and correction it
received from my copyeditor Jay Williams.
E.A.H .
.. New Milford, Connecticut