This volume offers innovative perspectives that reassess and update so-called Oral Theory, bridging classical scholarship with cutting-edge theoretical contributions, and host a dialogue with cognitive sciences (linguistics and neuroscience), anthropology, and complexity theory. The book propounds theoretical perspectives alongside case-studies ranging from Homer and Athenian literacy to Roman law.

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A century after Parry's groundbreaking studies and outset of Oral Theory, new hermeneutics have come to the fore and research on oral and written modes of communication has adopted an interdisciplinary approach, producing powerful insights and paradigms by making the most from anthropology, comparative studies, and from memory studies. In keeping with this trend, the present volume builds upon an innovative approach to orality and its interplay with literacy that calls into the debate, among others, the cognitive turn and neuroscience which in the last thirty years have produced a step-change in our understanding of human mind, communication, and transmission of knowledge. This volume shows both the relevance and the heuristic potential of these approaches to rethinking orality, and host a dialogue with cognitive sciences (linguistics and neuroscience), anthropology, and complexity theory, with an emphasis on theoretical perspectives, alongside case-studies ranging from Homer and classical Athens to Roman law.