Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication

This analytic survey and evaluation renders an account of Ong's contributions to cultural studies. Chapter 1 serves as a prologue to the study and the initial discussion of the import of Ong's work is set forth. Chapter 2 presents background information about Ong's life and work and both Chapters 1 and 2 contain definitions of issues and terms. In Chapters 3 through to 8 Ong's most significant scholarly books and collections of essays are surveyed: Chapter 3 is devoted to delineating Ong's account of Ramus and Ramism; Chapter 4 surveys his early writing on religious topics; Chapter 5 looks at Ong as the intellectual-at-large; Chapter 6 covers "The Presence of the Word"; Chapter 7 takes up his literacy and communication studies; and Chapter 8 discusses his two culminating psychological studies of the 1980s - "Fighting for Life" and "Hopkins, the Self and God". Chapter 9 concludes the study with an assessment of Ong's work.