Analyses of early modern Europe and the developing commercial print culture of the 18th tend to divide their focus between, on one hand, the impact upon styles of reading, writing, and textual dissemination, and on the other, discussions of literacy and orality in relation to 'popular culture'. Within this research model, definitions of 'oral' and 'orality' are based on a legacy of anthropological, historical, and literary studies which places a particular emphasis on the relationship between oral and literate modes and theorizes the difference between them primarily in terms of alternative forms of sensory apprehension. This thesis argues that such an approach is limited an limiting. Therefore, it does not attempt to show where the oral managed to persist alongside print, or to demonstrate that there were two, interactive or otherwise, cultures of orality and literacy. Rather, it offers an analysis of the ways in which the oral was understood and represented during the eighteenth century. Through an exploration of the assumptions that were then made about oral modes and practices it indicates not only where there is room to challenge the biases of is current critical formulation, but also identifies how much can be missed by an anachronistic interpretation of eighteenth-century attitudes. Accounts of and advice on the ideal conversation, public oration, and sermon form the focus of the first three chapters, which discuss how contemporary oral practises were imagined, theorized, and represented during this period. The subsequent chapters assess the engagement of eighteenth-century writers with what they deem to be historical forms of orality. The representation of bardic poetry and song is examined through a reading of various conjectural histories, accounts of the effect of music and poetry, and descriptions of the classical world. A comparison between two versions of one text - Henry Bournes Antiquitates Vulgares (1725) and its reformulation by John Brand as Observations on Popular Antiquities (1777)-facilitates a reassessment of the connection between oral tradition and 'popular culture'. And finally, the arguments surrounding the status of the oral as evidence are considered in relation to antiquarian activities, the Ossian controversy, and the journals published by Johnson and Boswell of their journey to the Highlands of Scotland.