Date of Award

Spring 2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

David Metzger

Committee Member

Joanne Scheibman

Committee Member

Lawrence Hatab

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 C56 2006

Abstract

The shift from an oral society to a literate one occurred in Ancient Greece with the advent of the alphabet (Ong, Orality 90). The Greek culture is generally considered to be a unique example of a culture which developed literacy internally (Havelock Muse 1), Details of the cultural transformation remain unclear, just as the history of the development of the Greek alphabet is rife with rumors of foreign influence and predecessors. The shift was, nevertheless, a strongly internal process, an evolution of culture as much as of technology.

The transition from orality to literacy brought many conflicts. As a philosopher during the period of this transition, Plato was himself conflicted. In his Republic, he sets up a society where the poets, traditional transmitters of culture and learning, are virtually banned because Plato does not approve of the emotional involvement inherent in oral tradition (Waterfield 71). In other works, most notably his "Seventh Letter," Plato decries the loss of memory capability involved in being able to write things down (Stevenson). The Platonic dialogues (here I include writings starring Socrates) themselves mark this conflict. They were written, yet they follow the format of spoken, and indeed acted, conversation.

This thesis will concentrate on a rhetorical analysis of the Platonic dialogues, drawing out the voices and appeals in a sample of seven dialogues, slightly more than 25 percent of the corpus of the dialogues. I expect to find indications of the conflict between orality and literacy in, at a minimum, the ideas and forms Plato/Socrates was trying to draw out of the dialogue participants. This analysis will not only draw out references to oral and literate forms, and the cultural results of the dominance of each type of form, but will also strive to place those results in the context of the culture, that is, to determine how deeply orality and literacy were a part of Ancient Greek culture during Plato's life and especially during the time when the dialogues were being written.

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DOI

10.25777/srvr-br41

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