Lecture #2: Oral Culture to Writing Culture to Print Culture

Below is an outline of the talk in the video

Areas of Transformations resulting from the change from oral to writing to printing culture.

1.     Memory:

•       Loss of individual capacity to remember (Goody and Watt 311, 327,  Burke, )
•        Loss of collective capacity to forget (Goody and Watt)

2.     Knowledge:

•       Less shared (Goody and Watt 338, Burke)
•       Increase in amount of information
•        Cross-referencing
•       Specialization (Goody and Watt 334)
•       Democratization

3.     Language and Information:

•       Standardization  (Eisenstein 11)
•            Also of laws, rules, etc.
•     Organization, e.g., indexing (Eisenstein 14, Burke)

4.     Communication:

•           Non-local
•       Mass (one-to-many) (Burke)
•       De-contextualized (Goody and Watt)
•       Speed (Burke)

5.     Individual relation to community

•      Greater sense of individuality (Goody and Watt 339)
•       Individual authorship (Eisenstein 22-23)
•       Separation from the immediate community
•       Connection to wider collectivity (Eistenstein 42)