Core Theorists

The foundational scholars of orality-literacy studies. Ong synthesized the field; Havelock revolutionized classical studies; McLuhan anticipated digital media.

Walter J. Ong (3)

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

1982 · The foundational synthesis

Writing Is a Technology That Restructures Thought

1986 · In Baumann (ed.), The Written Word

The Presence of the Word

1967 · Prolegomena for cultural and religious history

Eric A. Havelock (14)

Preface to Plato

1963 · Revolutionary analysis of Greek orality

The Muse Learns to Write

1986 · Reflections on orality and literacy from antiquity to present

The Greek Concept of Justice

1978 · From shadow to substance in early Greek thought

Preliteracy and the Presocratics

1966 · Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

The Preliteracy of the Greeks

1977 · New Literary History 8(3)

The Alphabetic Mind: A Gift of Greece to the Modern World

1986 · Oral Tradition 1(1)

Origins of Western Literacy

1976 · Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences

1982 · Princeton University Press

Orality and Literacy 25 Years Later

2007 · Retrospective essays on Havelock and Ong

Epilogue to Plato: The Bias of Literacy

Commentary on Havelock's thesis

The Ancient Art of Oral Poetry

1979 · Philosophy and Rhetoric

Communication Arts in the Ancient World

1978 · Edited volume

Origins of Western Literacy (Review)

Cambridge Classical Review

The Literate Revolution (Review)

Reviews of Havelock's thesis

Marshall McLuhan (1)

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

1964 · "The medium is the message"

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