the politics of the word from Homer to the Age of Rock /
Robert Pattison.
New York :
Oxford University Press,
1982.
xiii, 246 p. ;
22 cm.
Includes index.
Bibliography: p. 221-235.
Blithering Agamemnon: the borders of literacy. Literacy and consciousness ; The wild boy and Gracie Allen ; Agamemnon and the physical basis of literacy ; Literacy and language -- Chief Cobb vs. Themistocles: the technologies of rhetoric, reading, and writing. Rhetoric ; Reading and writing ; Athens: writing as a cultural force ; Sparta and fear of writing -- Word against empire: literacy and power. Rome: universal language and world domination ; The revolutionary literacy of the church ; Formal and vernacular literacy in the Middle Ages ; Literacy as battleground: then and now -- When media collide: literacy and the advent of print. Media use is organic ; "Get it in writing!": medieval written culture ; The word, the press, and the Reformation: John Wycliffe ; The text, the press, and orthodoxy: John Donne ; The word and revolution: John Bunyan ; The Miltonic compromise: old made new print and television -- Iran to Ann Landers: fallacies about literacy and development. Skill in reading and writing does not a mighty nation make ; The Iranian example ; The psychological burden of illiteracy ; The prisoner phenomenon -- Hopefully into the future: John Locke and correct usage. Standard usage and the rise of capitalism ; The liberal fallacy: truth, progress, and literacy ; The cult of correct usage ; Some thoughts on teaching English -- Caliban in America: literacy in the age of rock. Mechanical literacy ; Followers and leaders: two literacies ; Training the literate elite ; Illiterate backlash ; Orthodox American literacy ; The new literacy -- Conclusion.