didactic literature
Quick Summary
Didactic literature is writing or art intended to convey instruction or information. The term originates from the Greek word didaktikós, meaning "apt at teaching". While didactic works can be both entertaining and instructive, such as proverbs or gnomic poetry, the term can also describe texts that are overly focused on factual matter, making them dull or pompous.12
Examples of didactic literature include Lucretius's De rerum natura, which explains Epicurus's atomic theory to free people from superstition, and Virgil's Georgics, which, while influenced by Lucretius, focuses on rural life and the virtues of hard work. Ovid's Ars amatoria and Fasti also employ didactic elements, though often with a comedic or satirical intent.3
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children’s literatureThe didactic versus the imaginativeThe fifth, and most striking, general feature is the creative tension resulting from a constantly shifting balance between two forces: that of the pulpit-schoolroom and that of the imagination. The first force may take on many guises. It may stress received…
Read MoreThe fifth, and most striking, general feature is the creative tension resulting from a constantly shifting balance between two forces: that of the pulpit-schoolroom and that of the imagination. The first force may take on many guises. It may stress received…
Read More- dramatic literatureDrama and communal belief
…Western attempts at a religious didactic drama, or indeed at any drama of “ideas,” have had to reckon with the disparate nature of the audience. Thus the impact of Ibsen’s social drama both encouraged and divided the development of the theatre in the last years of the 19th century. Plays…
Read More…Western attempts at a religious didactic drama, or indeed at any drama of “ideas,” have had to reckon with the disparate nature of the audience. Thus the impact of Ibsen’s social drama both encouraged and divided the development of the theatre in the last years of the 19th century. Plays…
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English literatureDidactic poetryThe 13th century saw a rise in the popularity of long didactic poems presenting biblical narrative, saints’ lives, or moral instruction for those untutored in Latin or French. The most idiosyncratic of these is the Ormulum by Orm, an Augustinian canon in the…
Read MoreThe 13th century saw a rise in the popularity of long didactic poems presenting biblical narrative, saints’ lives, or moral instruction for those untutored in Latin or French. The most idiosyncratic of these is the Ormulum by Orm, an Augustinian canon in the…
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fable, parable, and allegoryFable…it resembles, is that a moral—a rule of behaviour—is woven into the story.
Read More…it resembles, is that a moral—a rule of behaviour—is woven into the story.
Read More- Polish literatureDidactic element in prose and poetry
Didacticism permeated most of the period’s prose writing. Modern periodicals appeared at this time (e.g., Monitor, 1765–85), and a Polish dictionary was published between 1807 and 1814. The poetic works of Bishop Adam Naruszewicz, considered chronologically, reflect the transition from the Baroque to the classicism…
Read MoreDidacticism permeated most of the period’s prose writing. Modern periodicals appeared at this time (e.g., Monitor, 1765–85), and a Polish dictionary was published between 1807 and 1814. The poetic works of Bishop Adam Naruszewicz, considered chronologically, reflect the transition from the Baroque to the classicism…
Read More - short storyFrom Egypt to India
…the Middle East, were fundamentally didactic. Some of those ancient stories preached by presenting an ideal for readers to imitate. Others tagged with a “moral” were more direct. Most stories, however, preached by illustrating the success and joy that was available to the “good” individual and by conveying a sense…
Read More…the Middle East, were fundamentally didactic. Some of those ancient stories preached by presenting an ideal for readers to imitate. Others tagged with a “moral” were more direct. Most stories, however, preached by illustrating the success and joy that was available to the “good” individual and by conveying a sense…
Read More