Rhetoric and Education

10 Março 2020, 10:00 • Fotini Hadjittofi

Greek: Progymnasma, Ethopoeia, Declamation

Questions

What are the main rhetorical exercises? What objective(s) does each one have?
Do ethopoeia and declamation aim to create empathy? Do they reinforce or challenge

stereotypes?
Would (some of) these exercises be useful in the modern classroom?

Primary Texts

Libanius, Progymnasmata: Gibson, C. A. (ed.) 2008. Libanius’s Progymnasmata: Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric: 1–3, 9–11, 43–55, 87–101, 107–113, 126–133, 220–229, 266–277, 321–329, 355–361, 427–433, 509–519. Atlanta.

Libanius, Declamatio 41: Ogden, D. 2009. Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook: 290–299. Oxford.

Secondary Readings

Cribiore, R. 2001. Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: 220–244, esp. 221–238. Princeton

Cribiore, R. 2007. The School of Libanius in Late Antique Antioch: 143–147. Princeton.

Dainville, J. and Benoît S. 2016. “Teaching Rhetoric Today: Ancient Exercises for Contemporary Citizens”, Educational Research and Reviews 11: 1925–1930.

Roman: Declamation

Questions

Explain what a suasoria and a controversia are and what Roman students were expected to do when declaiming them.

Roman writers complain a lot about the practice of declamation in their works. What were the main criticisms? Do you think some of these criticisms are valid and, if so, which ones?

What were some of the potential benefits accrued to the student of declaiming the suasoria and controversia?

Primary Text

Seneca, Suasoriae 1–7, esp. 3 and 7: Winterbottom, M. (ed. and tr.), The Elder Seneca, vol. 2: Declamations. Cambridge, Mass./London.

Seneca, Controuersiae, esp. 1.8, 3.1–4, 3.9, 5.3, 5.7, 6.1–2, 6.5–8: Winterbottom, M. (ed. and tr.), The Elder Seneca, vols. 1–2: Declamations. Cambridge, Mass./London.

Secondary Readings

Bloomer, W. M. 2007. “Roman Declamation: The Elder Seneca and Quintilian”, in W. Dominik and J. Hall (eds.), A Companion to Roman Rhetoric: 296–306. Oxford.

Corbeill, A. 2007. “Rhetorical Education and Social Reproduction in the Republic and Early Empire”, in W. Dominik and J. Hall (eds.), A Companion to Roman Rhetoric: 69–82. Oxford.
Cf. Corbeill on the “oddness” of declamation with the view of Dominik. W. J. 1997. “The Style is the Man: Seneca, Tacitus and Quintilian’s Canon”, in W. J. Dominik (ed.), Roman Eloquence: Rhetoric in Society and Literature: 50–51. London; Dominik, W. J. 2007. “Tacitus and Pliny on Oratory”, in W. Dominik and J. Hall (eds.), A Companion to Roman Rhetoric: 325–326. Oxford; and Dominik, W. J. 2017. “The Development of Roman Rhetoric”, in M. MacDonald (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies: 167–168. Oxford.