Orality, Textuality, and Visuality

Abstract

The oral lore or oral tradition had for long been the only and primary medium of communication, and of the transmission and preservation of knowledge, folklore, cultural material, and canonical scriptures from one generation to the other. It was a fully-fledged, perfected, and complete artistic literary medium prior to the invention of script. The advent of the technologies of literacy (writing and print), however, changed the existing oral-aural based culture into a highly literate, and document-oriented world. The expansion of new media technologies, offering unlimited privileges, relegated to an even more subordinate position the status of this tradition. This paper discusses the concepts of 'oral culture' and 'oral literature' , and identifies some of the defining features of an oral context or culture in contrast to a literate or print-minded culture. It also characterizes the oral text, and the written text, points out the fortes (strong points) of both modes, and the thought processes and skills involved in each. The concern of the last section is with new media, also referred to as hypermedia, the privileges they offer, and the sweepingly detrimental power it has had over the art of orality. Keywords: Orality, oral culture, literate culture, script, print, new media technology.