Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/11375/13817
Title: | Knowledge and Memory: The Institutionalization of the Written Word |
Authors: | Perovic, Sanja |
Advisor: | Allen, Barry |
Department: | Philosophy |
Keywords: | Philosophy;Philosophy |
Publication Date: | Sep-1998 |
Abstract: | <p>Knowledge and Memory: The Institutionalization of the Written Word deals with the relation between institutions and knowledge. More specifically, it deals with the effects of writing on the organization and institutionalization of memory. I show how the conception of memory as a written trace (as something made manifest in archives, documents and books) changes the relation between the subject, time and space to yield new paradigms of knowledge.</p> <p>I begin by tracing the emergence of the written word from its origins in the Greek alphabet in order to show how the birth of the unified, rational self is a product of the spatial projection of speech onto the written page. I then discuss how the spatialization of language relates to the linguistication of space by considering four technological developments in the medieval practise of reading: the art of memory, indexes, signatures and copies. I show how the self is discovered as someone who reads into his own heart as if it were a text and how the newfound literate conception of knowledge as textual dissemination separates the self from his self-knowledge. I end by investigating the logic of institutions which gain power on the basis of a textual organization of knowledge. In particular, I consider how textual canons give professional bodies monopoly over discourse through a disciplinary division of knowledge, resulting in a society which is increasingly dependent on its experts to give it a sense of direction.</p> |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/13817 |
Identifier: | opendissertations/8647 9660 4865357 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
File | Size | Format | |
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fulltext.pdf | 3.44 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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