Didacticism

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Didacticism

Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
and other types of art

Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
. Didactic art intends not primarily to "entertain

Entertainment

Entertainment is an activity designed to give people pleasure or relaxation. An audience may participate in the entertainment passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games....
" or to pursue subjective goals. The opposite of "didactic" is "non-didactic." If the artist is more concerned with artistic qualities and techniques than with conveying a message, then the work is considered to be non-didactic, even if it serves instructive or educational purposes.

An example of didactic writing may be found in Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope is generally regarded as the greatest England poet of the eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer....
's An Essay on Criticism
An Essay on Criticism

An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the English people writer Alexander Pope . However, despite the title, the poem is not as much an original analysis as it is a compilation of Pope's various literary opinions....
(published 1711), which offers a range of advice about critics and criticism.

The term "didactic" also refers to media that are 'burdened' with instructive, factual, and/or otherwise "educational" information, sometimes to the detriment of a reader's (or viewer's) enjoyment.

Some have suggested that nearly all of the best poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
is didactic.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Didacticism'

Start a new discussion about 'Didacticism'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature

Literature

Art

Entertainment

Alexander Pope

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
is didactic. Contrarily, Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
called didacticism the worst of "heresies

Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
" in his essay The Poetic Principle
The Poetic Principle

"The Poetic Principle" is an essay by Edgar Allan Poe, written near the end of his life and published posthumously in 1850 . It is a work of literary criticism, and one of the most complete discussions of Poe's literary theory....
(before 1850).

Other examples of didactic literature include:

Works and Days
Works and Days

Works and Days is a Greek poem of some 800 verses written by Hesiod . The poem revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by....
, by Hesiod
Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
(700 BCE)
De Rerum Natura, by Lucretius Carus (1st century BCE)
Georgics
Georgics

The Georgics, published in 29 BCE, is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil. Its ostensible subject is rural life and farming. It is generally described as Didacticism....
, by Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
(29 BCE)
The Jataka Tales (Buddhistic
Gautama Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama was a Spirituality teacher in the northern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is generally seen by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddhahood of our age....
literature, 5th century CE)
Philosophus Autodidactus
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan

?ayy ibn Yaq?an was the first Arabic novel and the first philosophical novel, written by Ibn Tufail , an Early Islamic philosophy and Islamic medicine, in early 12th century Al-Andalus....
by Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail

Ibn Tufail was an Al-Andalus-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic literature, novelist, Early Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Medicine in medieval Islam, vizier, and court official....
(12th century)
Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafis (1270s)
The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian

File:HirundoRusticaFlight1.jpgFile:Progne-subis-001.oggThe Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian is a cycle of connected poems by the Scotland makar Robert Henryson....
(1480s)
Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
John Bunyan

John Bunyan was an English Christianity writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress, arguably the most famous published Christian allegory....
(1678)
The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes
The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes

The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children's story by an anonymous author, published in 1765 in literature. The story popularized the phrase "goody two-shoes", often used to describe an excessively or annoyingly virtuous person....
(anonymous, 1765)
The Adventures of Nicholas Experience, by Ignacy Krasicki
Ignacy Krasicki

Ignacy Krasicki , from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno , was Poland's leading Polish Enlightenment poet , Fables and Parables, author of the Adventures of Mr....
(1776)
Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem
Queen Mab (poem)

Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes was the first large poetic work written by Percy Bysshe Shelley , the English Romantic poet....
, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major England Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest Lyric poetry in the English language....
(1813)
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature....
, by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck III was an American literature. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937....
(1939)
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in literature in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, List of longest novels, and last novel....
, by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system called Objectivism ....
(1957)
Sophie's World
Sophie's World

Sophie's World is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991. It was originally written in Norwegian, but has since been translated into English language and many other languages....
, by Jostein Gaarder
Jostein Gaarder

Jostein Gaarder is a Norway intellectual and author of several novels, short story and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world....
(1991)

Didactic plays teach the audience through the use of a moral or a theme.

A good example of didactism in music is the chant Ut queant laxis
Ut queant laxis

Ut queant laxis or Hymnus in Ioannem is a plainchant hymn to John the Baptist written by Paulus Diaconus, the eighth century Lombards historian....
, which was used by Guido of Arezzo

Guido of Arezzo

Image:Statue of Guido of Arezzo.jpgGuido of Arezzo or Guido Aretinus or Guido da Arezzo or Guido Monaco or Guido D'Arezzo was a music theorist of the Medieval music era....
to teach solfege

Solfege

In music, solf?ge is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solf?ge syllable ....
syllables.

Didacticism

See also