An Archaeology of the Pre-Modern Subject: Orality, Body, and Media Practices——A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Myth, Performance, and Memory
The medial transition of the oral age in human history was not merely a matter of technical succession; it profoundly reconfigured the generative logic of the artistic subject. This paper seeks to interrogate the historical morphology of the "premodern subject" within the oral tradition, framed against the backdrop of this medial shift. The study reveals that in a primordial phase wherein subject and object had not yet been differentiated, the body functioned as a "meta-medium"—unifying memory, performance, and transmission—thereby constituting the practical foundation of artistic activity. The resultant form of subjectivity is concretely manifested in the multiple roles of the rhapsode or bard: as a vessel of divine inspiration, their body is a conduit for spiritual afflatus; as a master of memory, their performance relies on formulaic phrases drawn from a collective "pool of tradition"; and as a performer, their practice of co-presence with the audience collaboratively weaves a highly situated and participatory cultural field. Ultimately, the oral tradition engendered a "corporeal subjectivity" radically distinct from the modern concept of the author—a subjectivity that is primordial and unindividuated, unifying transmission and reception, and deeply embedded in the interactive nexus of the body and the community. An archaeology of this subject-type not only offers a historical lens for deconstructing the myth of the modern subject but also establishes a crucial historical benchmark for understanding the transformations of subjectivity throughout subsequent media revolutions.
