ABC: The Alphabetizaton of the Popular Mind

Ivan Illich

• Publisher: Marion Boyars
• Year: 1988
• Print ISBN: 9780714528915
• eBook ISBN: 9780714521503
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

In ABC... philosopher and cultural analyst Ivan Illich and medieval scholar and literary critic Barry Sanders have produced an original, meticulous and provocative study of the advent, spread and present decline of literacy. They explore he impact of the alphabet on fundamental thought processes and attitudes, on memory, on political groupings and religous and cultural expectations. Their examination of the present erosion of literacy in the new technological languages of 'newspeak' and 'uniquack' and they point out how new attitudes to language are altering our world view; our sense of self and of community.

Select Bibliography

“… while utilizing and including these texts, I do not depart from the conviction that a work of synthesis must rest mainly upon facts already gathered and critically digested by the relevant specialists: In other words upon what, from the standpoint of scholarship, must be classed as secondary sources. Those who are suspicious of this foundation show a distaste for the function of interpretation rather than a rationally grounded distrust of the method. All general views are, of course, open to correction, both as to fact and as to interpretation….”

Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities

This bibliography contains mainly two types of books: the kind that will enable the reader to deepen and widen his knowledge of the subject, and those which, though not covering specifically the field of the present volume, have been drawn upon for special documentation.

Abernethy, Seonaid. “The Decisions Themselves: China, Vernacular Procedures; Japan, Vernacular Agreements.” Unpublished typescript, 1985.

Adamson, J. W. “The Extent of Literacy in England in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.” The Library 10, no. 2 (September 1929): 163.
In 1489, the rule concerning the “benefit of the clergy” was changed; it was a privilege that laymen who could read had enjoyed with the clergy. By 1489, so many laymen had become literate that a distinction was drawn between them and the ordained clergy.

Altaner, Berthold. “Die Heransbildung eines einheimischen Klerus in der Mission des 13. and 14. Jahrhunderts.” Zeitschrift für Missionswissenshaft 18 (1928): 193–208.

———. “Sprachstudien und Sprachkenntnisse im Dienste der Mission des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts.” Zeitschrift für Missions-Wissenschaft 21 (1931): 113–36.

———. “Die fremdsprachliche Ausbildung der Dominikanermissionare während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts.” Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft 23 (1933): 233–71.

———. “Raymundus Lullus und der Sprachenkanon (can. 11) des Konzils von Vienne (1312).” Historisches Jahrbuch 53 (1933): 190–219.

———. “Zur Kenntnis des Arabischen im 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts.” Orientalia Christiana Periodica (Rome) 2 (1936): 437–52.
See Steiner.

Amelotti, M., and G. Costamagna. “Alle origini del notariato italiano.” Studi storici sul notariato italiano 2 (Rome) (1975).
See Clanchy.

Asensio, Eugênio. “La lengua compañera del imperio: História de una idea de Nebrija en España y Portugal.” Revista de Filologia Española 43 (1960): 399–413.
See Heisig.

Auerbach, Erich. “Dante’s Address to the Reader.” Romance Philology 7 (1954): 268–78.

———. Literatursprache und Publikum in der lateinischen Spätantike und im Mittelalter. Bern: 1958.

Bahner, Werner. “Beitrag zum Sprachbewusstsein in der spanischen Literature des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts.” Neue Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft. Berlin: Rüttner, 1956.
See Heisig.

Balogh, Joseph. “Voces paginorum.” Philologus 82 (1926/27): 84–109 and 202–40.
See Saenger.

Battisti, Carlo. “Secoli Illetterati. Appunti sulla crisi del Latino prima delia riforma carolingia.” Studi Medievali (1960): 369–96.

Bauml, Franz. “Der Uebergang muendlicher zur artes-bestimmten Literatur des Mittelalters. Gedanken und Bedenken.” Fachliteratur des Mittelalters: Festschrift für Gerhard Eis, 1–10. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1968.

———. “Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy.” Speculum 55, no. 2 (1980): 237–65.

Bauml, Franz, and Edda Spielmann. “From Illiteracy to Literacy: Prologomena to a Study of the Nibelungenlied.” In Duggan, Oral Literature, 62–73.

Bayer, Hans. “Zur Soziologie des mittelalterlichen Individualisie-rungsprosesses: Ein Beitrag zu einer wirklichkeitsbezogenen Geistesgeschichte.” Archiv fuer Kulturgeschichte 58 (1976): 115–53.
See Morris.

Beardsley, Monroe C. “Aspects of Orality: A Short Commentary.” New Literary History 8, no. 3 (1977): 521–34.

Belting, Hans. Das Bild und sein Publikum im Mittelalter Form und Funktion früher Bildtafeln der Passion Gebr. Reihe: Mann Studio, 1981.
See Daly.

Benson, Larry D. “The Literary Character of Anglo-Saxon Formulaic Poetry.” Publication of the Modern Language Association 81 (1966): 334–41.

Berman, Harold J. “The Background of the Western Legal Tradition in the Folklaw of the Peoples of Europe.” University of Chicago Law Review 45, no. 3 (Spring 1978): 553–97.
Deals with the disembedding of the law, through codification, since the late eleventh century: “There was a time, prior to the late eleventh century when the peoples of Western Europe were not conscious of any clear distinction between legal institutions and other institutions of social coherence…”
See Watkins.

Berthold, Luise. “M...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• I. Words and History
• II. Memory
• III. Text
• IV. Translation and Language
• V.The Self
• VI. Untruth and Narration
• VII. From Taught Mother Tongue to Newspeak and Uniquack
• Postscript: Silence and the We
• Select Bibliography
• Copyright