Beskrivning
Anders Eriksson, Örebro University
Progymnasmata as union of practice and theory. Rhetoric is a school subject. The relationship between rhetoric and education is a major field of research in rhetorical studies. The author argues that rhetoric is a teaching tradition. Education in rhetoric is based on the students’ own practice and the theoretical reflection should be based on a meta-cognition of their own practice. This is manifested most clearly in the rhetorical exercise program Progymnasmata. The exercises train basic skills. One of the most important skills is the ability to distinguish between content, res, and expressions, verba, and the skill to combine them in the best way possible. The article seeks to present the educational philosophy of Progymnasmata.
Anders Eriksson (2011) remarks
For a number of years I have been working on the relationship between rhetoric and education. In the process I have translated the most influential collection of the rhetorical exercises, the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius and headed the research project Retorikens didaktik, supported by the Swedish Research Council. The Swedish version of the article was written for an issue of Rhetorica Scandinavica that had Rhetoric and education as a theme. The article attempts to outline some of the main ideas of rhetoric as a teaching tradition. In the English translation some of the Scandinavian sources have been changed to English sources.
About this article
- Part of: Scandinavian Studies in Rhetoric. Rhetorica Scandinavica 1997-2010, Kjeldsen & Grue (eds.), Retorikförlaget Publishers 2011.
- Article pp 218–237
- Original Swedish: “Retorikens didaktik“, Rhetorica Scandinavica 38 (2006).
About Anders Eriksson
Anders Eriksson is University Lecturer at Örebro University. His main interests are in didacticism and progymnasmata.
