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    The Violence of the Letter

    External Review of Whole Manuscript

    Toward a Theory of Writing

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    Author(s)
    McMahon, Melanie
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    The emergence of the alphabet in ancient Greece, usually heralded as the first step in the inexorable march toward reason and progress, in fact signaled the introduction of a chance technology that hijacked the future, with devastating consequences for humanity. By investigating an array of cultural artifacts, ranging from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Oracle at Delphi to Luther's challenge to the Church, this book demonstrates how the apparently benign emergence of writing made possible far-ranging systems of organized domination and unprecedented levels of violence. The Violence of the Letter considers how a twenty-six-letter code changed the face of the world, and not always for the better.
    URI
    https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/76176
    Keywords
    literary theory, writing, alphabet, literacy, colonialism, capitalism, Derrida, Marx, Havelock, Ong, Althusser, critical theory, French theory, Foucault, violence, imperialism, Western civilization, oral culture, indigenous studies, postcolonial theory, settler colonial theory, culturalstudies, world history, Empire, antiquity, history of writing, Lévi-Strauss, printing press, Luther, monotheism, Oedipus complex, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus Tyrannus, oracle at Delphi, Pythia, schooling, neuropsychology, media archaeology, media studies, media theory, media ecology
    DOI
    10.3998/mpub.12406894
    ISBN
    9780472075911, 9780472055913, 9780472903238
    Publisher
    University of Michigan Press
    Publisher website
    https://www.press.umich.edu/
    Publication date and place
    2023
    Pages
    213
    Rights
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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