ABSTRACT
The precise moment of transmutation from oral narrative to written narrative is almost impossible to identify. However, the work of Havelock (1963, 1986) draws attention to a pivotal event. For him, the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato constitute a clarion call of commitment to a new, literate form of consciousness. As Havelock and Lord (2000) argue, oral discourse, and especially oral narrative, did not simply disappear with the advent of writing. To be sure, the chief distinction between the two remained: as Lord shows at some length (2000: 30-67), oral narrative relies heavily on set formulas and repetition; written and printed narrative, on the other hand, allows a greater freedom of expression. Neither the teller of print narrative nor the reader of it require the formulaic aids to memory which were necessary in the oral medium: events in previous stages of a narrative remain preserved in material form on the page. Nevertheless, the residues of oral narrative lingered on in the new written forms.
