Engl 360
Essay2 draft
Anjie Zhao
10-27-2014
Printing
has been one of the greatest inventions in human history. The invention of
printing contributed greatly to the formation of the text-based culture in
modern days. This essay will give an overview of the ways print and literacy shaped
ancient rhetoric. I will also provide brief histories and evidences in both Renaissance
period and Enlightenment era about the ways rhetoric was shaped. I will mainly discuss
how printing influences rhetoric in memory, style, and thinking. Lastly, I will
analyze these changes based on my perspectives. Overall, I think printing and
literacy affect these three areas in a beneficial way; they bring changes that increase
social, economic development and improve people’s welfare.
Between
15th and 16th century, the first book was printed and
published, and it was about the same time printing started to change the use of
rhetoric. The use of text based information became more often. Title page, for
example, appeared within rhetorical treatises during the incunabular period, which
is between 1400s and 1500s; the purpose of title page was to identify each text
or book (Murphy, 1984).
The study of rhetoric was hard during that time because people did not have subject
indexes to catalogues (1984).
The closest tools they could use to locate the texts were lists of authors’
names (1984). The
distribution of rhetoric increased with the help of printing (1984). There were huge
amount of editions and print copies being produced (1984). Numbers of Rhetorical books were small
compared to grammar books, literature and religion books (1984). Most rhetorical
books had only one or two editions (1984). Many classical writing pieces were published during 15th
century including speeches written by Cicero, Quintilian, Aristotle and Plato (1984).
Before
printing, rhetors memorize their speech based on what they called the art of
memory. The art of memory includes techniques to help people memorize things
such as memorization of series of places and imaginary recreation (Peters, 2004). People not
only could remember what they want to memorize based on these techniques, they
could also retrieve and recollect their memories through using these techniques
(2004). Prints and
books destroyed people’s ability of memorization in rhetoric by replacing human
memory. Since 16th century, the invention of printing enables people
to objectify their memories and create material memories like books and
journals (2004). This
results in people no longer need to use their brain to memorize rhetoric, thus
their ability to memorize things is abandoned (2004). At the end of 17th century,
the art of memory has vanished completely (2004).
Print
and literacy has changed the styles and structures of rhetoric. Milman Parry
and Eric Havelock, both from 20th century, argued that rhetorical
structures are changed since the age of literacy. They found that before the
age of printing and literacy, Homer taught speeches by using rhetorical
techniques like repetitions, epithets, similes and lists; differently, literate
rhetors made their speeches long, and well-organized just like Plato’s proses (Peters, 2004). In addition
to these changes, Havelock said society has shifted its attention away from
performed poetic rhetorical genres like epic recitation, ritual, oratory, and
drama (2004). These
poetic performances are aimed for maintaining memories through verbal and
phonetic practices (2004).
The reason people gave up for them is, same as memory, people’s need for prints
took over their need for these services for memory enhancement (2004).
The
enlightenment period shows some similarities and differences between those from
the enlightenment era and classical rhetors (Aristotle, Plato, Cicero and
other). Like Cicero, Giambattista Vico believed that through the process of
learning one could become a skillful orator (Herrick, 2005). Vico also wanted to recreate
Cicero’s topical system. Similar to Aristotle, Vico used metaphor to make
difference between words and objects. However Vico’s rhetoric is also different
from classical rhetoric because his rhetoric shows some modern features. Unlike
Aristotle or Cicero, Vico believed that rhetoric can make connections between things
they can describe and things they can’t (2005). Other classical theorists like George Campbell proposed
that ethic is the most important among all science (2005). This idea is identical to Aristotle’s
use of ethic in his rhetorical persuasion (2005). In addition, Campbell’s proposed that
eloquent orators should use truthful and good words in their arguments; this
idea is similar to Quintilian’s idea that “eloquence is based on research,
analysis, practice and application” (2005). Different
from Quintilian, Campbell’s theory of eloquence is less about style but more about
connections with audiences and human mind (2005).
Furthermore,
the age of literacy proposed rhetorical thinking based on written-text and
logic. An example could be Plato’s Phaedrus because it is a written script (Peters, 2004). Walter J.
Ong, a literacy critic, has studied Peter Ramus (a college professor and
educator who adopted printing) and discovered several changes occurred in his
writings before and after the Renaissance period (Petrick, 2004-2006). Ong found two main changes
in Ramus’s way of thinking. One is a switch from uncertain knowledge (rhetoric)
to logical and truthful evidences. Another is a change from vocal arguments to
readable written scripts. Ong argued that that literate culture still relied on
oral form because it did not depend on print to widely distribute literacy and
written texts (Peters, 2004).
With print technology, text based culture slowly succeeded oral rhetoric
(memory based) (2004).
People
debated about the impact of literacy and print. Jacques Derrida, a French
philosopher, criticized literacy and printing by his reasons (Peters, 2004). He said cultures
without oral speech will have no record, no rationality or civilization; print
will not cover the profoundness of phonetic culture; and print revolution has
neglected the dynamism of different cultures like Chinese and Turkish. Oppositely,
Linda Bolzoni argued literacy and print will not devalue techniques of memory (2004). She said writings
and prints are mirrors of memory; they exactly reflect the human mind thus will
not degrade our memory. She also said literacy and print may have caused the
disappearance of memory, but they have also recreated memory and phonetics
through written texts. No matter either side of the issue tells the truth,
these perspectives can prove that print and literacy have brought great changes
to people’s way of thinking and analytical skills.
In
my opinion, human mind and print both can serve as restorations of memory. Without
print, people can still remember by their brain. Likewise, without memorization
people can retrieve their memory based on textual information. I disagree with
Derrida’s idea that people have lost their memories and civilizations forever due
to the impact of printing press. Records and civilizations are preserved by prints
and books while people become forgetful. People’s memory will not be diminished
just because they don’t need to remember or because they have tools that assist
them with memorization. People can always try to remember when they need to.
For example, students need to memorize materials for test preparation; in this
case, students have to memorize test materials and they will make sure their
memory of the material last long enough or even become permanent.
Rhetorical
culture has shifted from oral to textual. This change predicts the improvement
of people’s writing and reading ability. As literacy rate grow, the country
will experience the rising of economy and the development of society. But text-based
rhetoric also brings negative effect to culture. People may become more shy or silent
within a society as they rely more on text based rhetoric, and less on the oral
based communication. This effect is similar to the texting effect; people find
that Japanese people are quiet on bus because they are all busy texting, and
highly attached to text based media. Same to Western societies, text-based ways
to express thoughts will replace speaking out loud.
The
shift from ancient rhetoric (which are based on religious beliefs or irrational
thoughts) to logical and scientific arguments provides more truthful information
for audiences. This change enables people to live practically and improves
people’s living standard. For instance, court judgment relies more on evidence,
thus becomes more equitable. Study of logic is also good for people’s well-being
because they can get away with irrational thoughts by thinking logically. Although
this shift from rhetoric to logic represents the disappearance of ancient rhetoric,
some pre-modern theorists from the enlightenment era still maintain the ideas
of classical rhetors such as the previous cases of Giambattista Vico and George
Campbell.
All
in all, according to the research on changes in memory, styles, and thinking,
printing and literacy shapes rhetoric in a good way. In a sense memories and
old ideas are not completely destroyed but are preserved through text based
medium. Print and literacy can assist people with memory, and improve people’s
logical or critical thinking skills. The coming of print and literacy replace
oral based rhetoric and memory, and make our society faster and more efficient.
This change marks the unavoidable development of the society, just like
nowadays how hyper-text media (I-phone, Facebook, Twitter and others) replaced books.
Reference
Peters, J. S. (2004). Theater
and Book in the History of Memory: Materializing Mnemosyne in the Age of Print.
Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to
Research in Medieval and Modern Literature, 102 (2), 179-206.
Murphy, J. J. (1984). RHETORIC
IN THE EARLIEST YEARS OF PRINTING, 1465-1500. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(1), 1-11.
Petrick, J., & Anker, A.
(2004-2006). Orality and Literacy. Communication Thoery (8). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=h-BUtnjAxnkC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=how+printing+changed+rhetoric&source=bl&ots=kB9A_NnWu3&sig=ivCAGlw0T4i2zpkQBtcnyu5ieQA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_NVOVKDOIMm7ogSwgoD4CQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=how%20printing%20changed%20rhetoric&f=false
Herrick, J.A.
(2005). The History and Theory of
Rhetoric. Boston: Pearson Education.
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