Interfaces: Conversation and writing in the transition to modernity

The fundamental principle of this text is the conception that forms of soci eties are always forms of communication. That is why the transformation fro m stratified to functionally differentiated society is analysed - referring to media theory - by the distinction between oral and written as such. It will be shown that stratified societies focus their communicative self-inte rpretation on the oral. Conversation can be seen as its elegant prototype. The written forms are treated as derivatives. The transition to modern age goes along with the re-evaluation of the distinction between oral and writt en forms of communication in their very sense. Written forms - not yet orie nted towards interactive use - are practised and commented critically and f inally appreciated in contemporary texts (from Rousseau to the German Roman tic period). Therefore the change in the type of the differentiation of soc iety is connected with a shift in semantics of communication: The differenc e between oral and written is now going to become reintroducible as a re-en try at the side of writing.