The Life and Death of the Viva

Abstract

The contemporary viva in higher education has a long history. This chapter considers this history by exploring the viva’s form, beginning with the time of the Classical Greeks. Thereafter, the following periods are discussed: the Greco-Roman, the Middle Ages, the modern period with a focus on the centrality of the form of the viva once found at Oxford and Cambridge, the contemporary professional and academic viva and, lastly, postmodern conceptions of the viva.