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This book considers how the presence or absence of writing can influence a culture s distinctive styles of visual art, proposing that many of the most profound developments in the art world are directly correlative with a cultural transition from orality to literacy (that is, from a culture which only has a spoken form of language, to one which has both a spoken and written form). The study contemplates how the psychodynamics of orality might radically affect artistic expression, resulting in a range of visual traits which in many ways reflect the unique modes of speech within primary oral societies. Looking to the art of a diverse range of cultures and time periods including Archaic Greek art, medieval art, African tribal art, child art, Outsider art and Modern art The Art of Orality considers what new insights can be gleaned by bringing these styles into dialogue with orality and literacy studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Unifying Orality, Literacy and Art.- Chapter 2: The Great Awakening : The Greek Revolution in Art and Orality.- Chapter 3: A Curious Mixture : Medieval Art and the Question of Orality.- Chapter 4: The Style Most Perfect : Tribal Art and Orality.- Chapter 5: An Enviable Freedom : Child Art and Orality.- Chapter 6: A Pure and Elementary State : Outsider Art and Orality.- Chapter 7: The Kingdom Where Each of Us Reigns : Julian Jaynes, Art and Orality.- Chapter 8: Primordially Eternal : Modern Art and Orality.- Chapter 9: Conclusion: The Future of Art and Orality.
About the author
Declan Lloyd has taught across a range of subjects at Lancaster University, UK, including within the art, history and literature departments. Other published works include Authors and Art Movements of the Twentieth Century: Painterly Poetics (2022), Digressions in Deep Time: Ecocritical Approaches to Literature and the Arts (2024. Editor, with Warren Mortimer) and Apocalyptic Ecolinguistics: Language, Landscape and Ecoanxiety in an Age of Ecological Crisis (2026. Editor, with Emil Tangham Hazelhurst). He has also written for The Guardian and The Conversation.
Summary
This book considers how the presence or absence of writing can influence a culture’s distinctive styles of visual art, proposing that many of the most profound developments in the art world are directly correlative with a cultural transition from orality to literacy (that is, from a culture which only has a spoken form of language, to one which has both a spoken and written form). The study contemplates how the ‘psychodynamics’ of orality might radically affect artistic expression, resulting in a range of visual traits which in many ways reflect the unique modes of speech within primary oral societies. Looking to the art of a diverse range of cultures and time periods – including Archaic Greek art, medieval art, African tribal art, child art, Outsider art and Modern art – The Art of Orality considers what new insights can be gleaned by bringing these styles into dialogue with orality and literacy studies.
