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 In 1974, Fr. Ong was the appointed Lincoln Lecturer for the United States Board of Foreign Scholarships in Central and Western Africa. As the Lincoln Lecturer, he traveled and lectured, both in English and French, in Cameroun, Nigeria, Sénégal, and Zaire. The Lincoln Lecturers were established to commemorate the passage of the Fulbright Act, which in 1945 established an ongoing educational exchange program between the United States and other countries. The Ong Collection contains a large file on the Lincoln Lecturer program and Fr. Ong's trip. Presented below, along with summaries from the tour literature, are digitized copies (in .pdf format) of his original lecture notes, many with Ong's handwritten notes in the margins. All four lectures were given in both English and French.
Subjects for Lectures and Presentations Offered by Walter J. Ong - A summary of the four presentations Ong used during the Lincoln Lecture series.
Introductory Remarks - A copy of Ong's opening comments from a presentation in Nigeria.
Introduction - Used in Ong's presentation at Stockholm, Sweden on May 28, 1975, and again at various presentations in Tunis, Tunisia and Rabat, Morocco in June 1-6, 1975.
Avant-Propos - Ong's opening comments, in French, from a presentation in Senegal.
This Side of Oral Culture and of Print - Public lecture, with response or discussion.
Per dela la culture orale et l'ere typographique - French version.
Summary: When a culture moves from oral communication, to writing, then to print, and then to electronic communication, it does not merely improve its ways of dispersing or spreading information but also alters its thought processes. This is true of all cultures. Western European culture has moved through these stages slowly, with consequences which Professor Ong has been studying and writing about for two decades and which this lecture treats. African cultures have entered into these stages at different paces, with present consequences which it is hoped the audience will wish to discuss.
Orality, Literacy, and Personality - Presentation for special group or seminar.
Structures psychiques des societes orales et des societes lettrees - French version.
Structures psychiques des societes orales et des societes lettrees - Alternate French version.
Summary: Cultures dominated by writing and print are strongly visualist: for them, even words, which are essentially sounds, are commonly thought of in great part as something visible, written or printed. The "world" or "universe" for such a culture tends to be thought of as something displayed in front of one's eyes, spread out for apprehension by vision. Other ways of experiencing the "world" are possible: it can be thought of as like sound, as something going on, as a happening in which we are participating, as a harmony. Sound is always a happening, an ongoing event, and oral cultures can favor a sense of the world or universe as something not so much seen as lived with and in. The tendency in highly technologized cultures to develop interest in happenings accompanies their break-through into a new world of sound with electronic media (telephone, radio, television). The relationship of this technological breakthrough to African cultures and psychological structures can be the subject of audience comment and discussion.
Media Transformation: Electronics and Printed Books - Presentation for special group or seminar.
La Metamorphose des media: l'ectronique et leas genres litteraires - French version.
Summary: When a new medium of verbal communication is developed, it does not destroy the older media but, on the contrary, reinforces them, though at the same time it transforms them. Writing reinforces talking but at the same time transforms the way people talk. Print reinforces writing, but transforms writing styles. Today, electronic tapes and other sound media are not replacing books, but, on the contrary, are bringing into print more and more books, but transforming the book into something new: the talked book, studiously informal.
The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction - Presentation for special group or seminar.
L'Auditoire de l'ecrivain est toujours une fiction - French Version.
Summary: Writing is always an artificial activity. Both writer and reader have to assume a fictional role. This is true not only of narrative for the general reading public but also for the most personal letters. The history of the ways in which successive generations of writers fictionalize their "audience" or readers is the history of the evolution of literary genres. It echoes and and helps generate the history of social structures. The implications of this fact remain to be worked out in European, African, American, and Eastern cultures.
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