At a time when new information technologies are beginning to challenge our typographic culture with a transition toward a new "secondary" orality, the impact of the written word on our daily lives, our individual perceptions, and our culture has become a matter of intense debate. This collection employs an interdisciplinary approach in its examination of the social and cultural implications of literacy. The contributors discuss, among other issues, the interdependence of the spoken and written word, the cultural and political ramifications of spreading mass literacy, and the consequences of the new electronic technologies, both in publishing and in the visual media, that challenge the supremacy of the written word.