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Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece

Part of Key Themes in Ancient History

Author: Rosalind Thomas, University of Oxford

Date Published: September 1992
availability: Available
format: Paperback
isbn: 9780521377423

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About the Authors

This book explores the role of written and oral communication in Greece and is the first systematic and sustained treatment at this level. It examines the recent theoretical debates about literacy and orality and explores the uses of writing and oral communication, and their interaction, in ancient Greece. It sets the significance of written and oral communication as much as possible in their social and historical context, and stresses the specifically Greek characteristics in their use. It draws together the results of recent studies and suggests further avenues of inquiry. All ancient evidence is translated.
- Rosalind Thomas is the author of the successful Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (CUP 1989, PB 1992)
- New series - this book one of first two to be published (the other is Morris: Death-ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity)
- Literacy a very trendy subject at the moment
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Reviews & endorsements
"Rosalind Thomas explores the roles and interactions of writing and oral communication in eight readable chapters, providing both a broadly informed overview of basic issues and sensible insights of her own....The whole is dotted with valuable specific information and insights. The presentation is fluid and fluent...." Carol Thomas, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"...an excellent, obliquely angled introduction to the study of ancient Greece as a whole." James Davidson, Times Literary Supplement
"...a work of major importance. It belongs in the library of every classicist, and of every scholar who works in the theory of oral transmission and/or the development of literacy." Ex Libris
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Product details
- Date Published: September 1992
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521377423
- length: 216 pages
- dimensions: 214 x 169 x 14 mm
- weight: 0.32kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Literacy and orality
3. Oral poetry
4. The coming of the alphabet: literacy and oral communication in archaic Greece
5. Beyond the rationalist view of writing: between 'literate' and 'oral'
6. Orality, performance, and memorial
7. Literacy and the state: the profusion of writing
Epilogue: the Roman world
Bibliographical essay
Bibliography.
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Author
Rosalind Thomas, University of Oxford