| Abstract [eng] |
Orality and Literacy: Persistence and Transformation of Two Cultural Models in Grand Duchy of Lithuania is devoted to investigate two cultural models – oral and literate – their intersection, conflicts and turning points in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A question about their influence on a change in society’s values and formation of personality is raised. Also, attempts are made to show that conceptions of culture dominated by speaking or writing can be successfully adapted to interpreting various phenomena of social, cultural and religious life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; it is sought to reveal how information that is presented in written sources, though influenced by the specificity of a written text, can become reliable material for reconstructing images of an oral society and forms of life. The fragments of the oral tradition recorded in the written sources may be used to reconstruct the archaic world-view. It was mythology that supplied the meaning of the latter and sanctioned it. The dissemination of writing subsequent to Christianisation of Lithuania did not abolish numerous phenomena of orality. On the other hand, the so-called secondary orality arose. The transformations of religious and communal life were followed, and further instigated in turn, by the shift of emphasis to writing and reading. It presented a challenge to the social and cultural identity both of the society and of individuals. It likewise enhanced the individual self-consciousness peculiar to early modernity. The phenomena of individual reading and writing gave rise to the modern notion of authorship. The increasing predominance of the written law was followed by the dissemination of the concept of universal justice. The latter, on the other hand, required autonomy of the judge’s conscience. The presence of the written law also promoted individual self-consciousness of the peasants and the representatives of other lower social strata, as well as their aspiration to certain extent of social autonomy. |
