Inaug.-Diss.--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen. Vita. / Bibliography: p. [196]-207.

Inaug.-Diss.--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen. Vita. / Bibliography: p. [196]-207.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 378-391).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincnnati Bible College & Seminary, 2003. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-96).

Thesis (M.I.S.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermarizburg, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincnnati Bible College & Seminary, 2003. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-96).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 390-398).

Approaching the subject of 'orality' as a complex social-historical practice containing fissures of technological inversion and spatial-acoustic transgression, this thesis seeks to understand the implications of an electronically realised 'secondary orality'. In particular, it seeks to understand this idea as it is elaborated in the media theory of Marshall McLuhan. The approach taken here attests to a vitally important, if often' ghosted', materialism of acoustic space, a context which is immediately and ambivalently implicated in the institutionalising and ideologising of communications technology. It is argued that a cultural media theory must address those forms of managed communicative experience that serve to diminish the everyday vernacular. The Introduction of the thesis identifies developments that have brought the idea of a 'secondary orality' into being. Chapter One examines Havelock's and Innis's privileging of technology in the orality question, as well as the general denial of acoustic practice within the orality-literacy debate. Chapter Two explores Ong's ideas on 'presence' as well as Derrida' s critique of Western phonocentrism in terms of the larger historical denial of sound. Chapter Three explores McLuhan's position on the techno-evolutionary overcoming of rationalism in the new electronic landscape and argues that his 'electronic materialism' is a form of interiorisation. Chapter Four turns to a discussion of the ancient world to consider oral ambivalence and the paradox of orality in the transition to literacy. Consideration is also given to the early modern emergence of a paradigm of abstract visualisation. Chapter Five examines the modern emergence of an oral resistance found in the acoustic otherworld of the' chapbook' and the poetics of Wordsworth, Blake, and Clare. Chapter Six discusses issues of the oral 'other' as found in the theories of Bakhtin, Volosinov, and Kristeva. Chapter Seven investigates a varied postmodern neo-McLuhanism in relation to issues of ecology, intertextuality, and the feminisation of technology. The Conclusion argues that 'secondary orality' involves a technological inversion of oral powers serving an electronic hegemony. The mimetically engineered spatial disorientation of transgressive sociality is further considered.

The production of knowledge has become a matter of power rather than truth and can serve either serve as a tool of liberation or domination. This creative project seeks to explore the interaction of power, knowledge and media in Africa given its history with European colonialism. This period painted Africa as an uneducated and dark continent that had no history and no knowledge. This belief has led to assumptions about knowledge production which are embedded in racist conventions rather than the free and fair pursuit of complete knowledge. The processes of knowledge production are ranked in a hierarchy and in this system of classification, focus on the written word has dominated curriculums while other systems of knowledge production, specifically the oral tradition, have largely been undervalued and ignored. As such, what is a vibrant, complex and active tradition of African orality in the pursuit and preservation of knowledge has been relegated to the back rooms of academia and scholars are not allowed to access to a variety of methods that can be used to know and understand the world. In analysing the current climate of knowledge production and the role media plays in Africa one must examine several questions: How did the West become the centre of knowledge production? What value can be extracted from the African oral tradition in the pursuit of knowledge in the current system of knowledge production? What are the implications of this on Africans as producers of knowledge and Africa's media landscape? While this creative project does not answer these questions entirely, it opens conversations about how we understand and experience knowledge, media, and power in an African context. Guided by the frameworks of power and postcolonial theory and decolonisation, this creative project aims to offer a critical but open-ended analysis of the state of African knowledge production and media while centring the African oral tradition. This project also aims to begin the work of creating a collection of oral stories to highlight the wisdom and insight that comes from the African oral tradition and what it can offer. Ultimately, this project is a call to widen our epistemological landscapes by including African ways of knowing and media use.