The book opens with a short preface to the New Accents series written by the General Editor of the series Terrence Hawkes (1932-2014). Hawkes states that social change in the contemporary period has necessitated a reexamination of assumptions within the social science fields. There has been a consequent restructuring of associated academic disciplines, particularly in literary studies. The New Accents series is a constructive response to this change, one that aims to apply new methods of analysis, to examine new areas of interest going beyond the classic Anglo-American perspective, and to explore new ideas on the relationships between literature and society. Each volume in the series focuses on a particular field of interest but is accessible to readers without specialist knowledge on the subject. These books contain an overview of extant scholarship on their respective topics along with a bibliography. Hawkes hopes that the books of the series will come together as a conversation to help direct future discourse.

Ong’s short Introduction outlines the intentions and scope of Orality and Literacy. The book focuses first on defining and describing “oral culture” and then on exploring the impact of literacy on human consciousness and society.