More on orality

I have been very intrigued by a discovery I have made regarding the shaping of discourse under either orality and literacy. In the section I'm reading in Eric A. Havelock's Preface to Plato, Havelock emphasizes the point that in literate societies, the written from of language embodies the highest form of linguistic expression. In other words, the prosiac nature of written discourse in literate societies becomes the prototype for how literate people tend think and express themselves. We don't go around reciting sonnets or evoking epic imagery.

In primary oral cultures, the poetic and epic--the easily rememberable--are the default formats. So the poetic form in the discourse of oral peoples is not (like we like to think) an out of the ordinary phenomenon. It is the archetype for self expression; it is ordinary, and not extraordinary.

This is an important disctinction to be aware of especially for those of us who are interested in understanding the function fo rhetoric under orality a condition different from that which we live in.