14
Literacy Studies in Classics
The Last Twenty Years
Shirley Werner
Twenty-five years ago a distinguished historian could write, ‘‘There are
plenty of studies on literacy, none on its use, that I know of’’ (MacMullen
1982: 233). Nothing could be further from the truth today. Discussions
of material evidence—some of it long known, some more recently dis-
covered (includinginstrumentum domesticum, thelapis Satricanus, the
wooden tablets from Vindolanda, a handful of lead letters
1
)—have gone
hand in hand with theoretical analyses bearing on the broader functions and
cultural significance of these written materials within their societies. The
collectedworkbyDetienne(ed.)1988a,Lessavoirsdel’e ́criture,wasorganized
aroundthehypothesisthatwriting,asasocialpractice,isawayofthinkingthat
functioned at the center of social life in classical Greece and opened up new
possibilitiesfortheintellect.Thomas1989,OralTraditionandWrittenRecord
in Classical Athens, sought to provide an ‘‘extensive reinterpretation of the
placeofwritinginGreekcultureanditsrelationtooralcommunication.’’The
publication of Harris 1989a,Ancient Literacy—often cited as the most com-
prehensive treatment of the levels of Greek and Roman literacy to date—
promptedscholarstopursuetopicswhichhadnotbeentakenupinthatbook.
Humphrey(ed.)1991,LiteracyintheRomanWorld,adoptedHarris’sstudyas
a starting point for contributors’ discussions of literacy in the Roman world.
Thomas 1992 continued her groundbreaking work on the interaction be-
tween writing and oral tradition in ancient Greece with the publication of
Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece, which contained chapters on oral
poetry; the coming of the alphabet; the relationship between literate and
oral; orality, performance, and the written text; and literacy and the state.
Pe ́barthe 2006, Cite ́, de ́mocratie et e ́criture: histoire de l’alphabe ́tisation
- Lapis Satricanus: Stibbe et al. 1980. On other kinds of primary evidence see the
bibliographical index under the relevant topics (e.g., ‘‘Instrumentum Domesticum,’’ ‘‘Lead
Letters,’’ ‘‘Ostraka,’’ ‘‘Tablets,’’ and ‘‘Vindolanda’’).