ISBN: 9780838639870

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing… mais…

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing. Main thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas are considered in the same light. The second part offers a six-point theory of the alphabet. Letters are seen as few, stable, equable, physical, virtual, and distributive. Such analysis demonstrates that writing is not empty like air or glass, and that the alphabet is both modifier and enabler of meaning. The third part examines the alphabet in five poets: Herbert, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickinson, and Eliot. Poetry is seen as supreme exemplum of the nature of both written and spoken language. The fourth part relates numerous twentieth-century phenomena to the alphabet--theories of mind and consciousness, the aesthetic, newspapers, advertising, and the computer. John Powell Ward is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Swanesea. The Spell of the Song: Letters, Meaning, and English Poetry Ward, John Powell, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press<

ISBN: 9780838639870

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing… mais…

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing. Main thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas are considered in the same light. The second part offers a six-point theory of the alphabet. Letters are seen as few, stable, equable, physical, virtual, and distributive. Such analysis demonstrates that writing is not empty like air or glass, and that the alphabet is both modifier and enabler of meaning. The third part examines the alphabet in five poets: Herbert, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickinson, and Eliot. Poetry is seen as supreme exemplum of the nature of both written and spoken language. The fourth part relates numerous twentieth-century phenomena to the alphabet--theories of mind and consciousness, the aesthetic, newspapers, advertising, and the computer. John Powell Ward is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Swanesea. Media >, [PU: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]<

ISBN: 9780838639870

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing… mais…

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing. Main thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas are considered in the same light. The second part offers a six-point theory of the alphabet. Letters are seen as few, stable, equable, physical, virtual, and distributive. Such analysis demonstrates that writing is not empty like air or glass, and that the alphabet is both modifier and enabler of meaning. The third part examines the alphabet in five poets: Herbert, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickinson, and Eliot. Poetry is seen as supreme exemplum of the nature of both written and spoken language. The fourth part relates numerous twentieth-century phenomena to the alphabet--theories of mind and consciousness, the aesthetic, newspapers, advertising, and the computer. John Powell Ward is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Swanesea. Media > Book, [PU: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]<

ISBN: 9780838639870

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing… mais…

This book investigates the nature of the alphabet as a medium of communication. The first part looks at its origins and evolution, and primitive religion's view of both speech and writing. Main thinkers like Plato, Augustine, and Aquinas are considered in the same light. The second part offers a six-point theory of the alphabet. Letters are seen as few, stable, equable, physical, virtual, and distributive. Such analysis demonstrates that writing is not empty like air or glass, and that the alphabet is both modifier and enabler of meaning. The third part examines the alphabet in five poets: Herbert, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickinson, and Eliot. Poetry is seen as supreme exemplum of the nature of both written and spoken language. The fourth part relates numerous twentieth-century phenomena to the alphabet--theories of mind and consciousness, the aesthetic, newspapers, advertising, and the computer. John Powell Ward is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Swanesea. Media >, [PU: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]<