Podcasts about progymnasmata

GuestsMichael Fitzgerald (Principal)Michael is an experienced educator with an M.S. in Brain-Based Education. After a decade teaching in a variety of school models, he is using his knowledge of classical education to lead Northern Schoolhouse, all while pursuing his doctorate in education.A dabbler in logic, philosophy, hiking, archery, chess, music, and handiwork, he brings his deep interest in the great minds of history to our Schoolhouse culture.Katherine Fitzgerald (Instructional Coordinator & Music Teacher)Katie has nearly two decades' experience with children in education and humanitarian work. Her studies in educational history, methodology, curriculum, and child psychology form the basis of the programs developed for Northern Schoolhouse.Music, math, baking, knitting, drawing, and gardening are among her many interests, and she shares her passion for doing and making with our Schoolhouse community.Show NotesThe Fitzgeralds have built their whole model around what they call the Three Paths of Attention: Knowledge, Genius, & Heart. Through these pillars, they have developed their assessments and cultivated a culture of students who care.  By attending to Knowledge, they steadily progress in their academic studies. By attending to Genius, they strengthen their ability to think and create. By attending to Heart, they become kind people who contribute to their families and communities.Katherine and Michael Fitzgerald offer frontline practical details about daily routines and expectations they're experiencing in Northern Schoolhouse. In this episode, the Fitzgeralds provide information about the classical culture of Northern Schoolhouse. They merge beautiful principles that operate under the three pillars of Classics, Nature, and Arts. They share stories about how student invest in their own work and greatly enjoy opportunities to grow; there is an essence of excitement about doing well. Most of all, the students care about their scholarly projects and they love working on them. Rather than testing, they use assessments, character maps, and are mindful about the regard for virtues and habits. These, and complementary ideas are outlined in practical ways. Resources mentionedPlatoSocratesShakespeare, Sonnet 18Charlotte MasonConfucius Dr. W. Edwards DemingAeneid OdysseyThe Bible"The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher" by John Taylor Gatto (from Dumbing us Down)Zhuan Falun by Hongzhi LiPodcast Episode on Motivation and Praise: How to Encourge Intrinsinc Motivation_______________________________________ANNOUNCING A NEW PROGYMNASMATA CURRICULUMBenjamin Lyda in partnership with Adrienne is launching a pilot for Scriptorium: Writing with the Progymnasmata for grades 3-8. For more information about participating in this pilot, visit the website: https://www.beautifulteaching.com/pilotANNOUNCING OUR FIRST CLASSICAL EDUCATION ONLINE CONFERENCE!11 speakers, 2 days, online and recorded if you cannot attend all of the sessions! Early bird pricing only $69 though April 1. Visit our website for more information.Beautiful Teaching Conference Details.________________________________________________________This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.Support this podcast: ★ Support this podcast ★ _________________________________________________________Credits:Sound Engineer: Andrew HelselLogo Art: Anastasiya CFMusic: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic © 2024 Beautiful Teaching LLC. All Rights Reserved

SPONSOREighth Day Books is sponsoring our upcoming online conference AND this podcast episode. They are offering FREE standard shipping between March 8 and March 31, 2024 for our listeners. Coupon code: BEAUTIFUL (at the checkout, choose the "standard shipping rate." $4.95 will automatically be deducted from the total order.Click here For Adrienne's BooklistClick here for the YOUTUBE link if you want to watch this episdoe.About the GuestRebecca was first introduced to Charlotte Mason in 2013 when her oldest child was 3. After exploring other educational methods, she felt she had finally found a philosophy that made sense. Every aspect of Ms. Mason's ideas, from reading living books to the importance of being immersed in the natural world, appealed to her on many levels. With a degree in art history, she especially appreciated Ms. Mason's emphasis on exposing children to fine art. Rebecca enjoys the freedom found in a Charlotte Mason education and the fact that it not only nourishes the minds, hearts, and souls of her children but hers as well. She lives in Colorado with her husband, their two children, three cats, two salamanders, and whatever bug pets her kids have adopted. She also writes at her website, a humble place.Show NotesPicture study is an enjoyable activity that cultivates the habit of attention and shapes the affections for beauty. On this episode, Rebecca from A Humble Place walks Adrienne through a picture study demonstration. This episode is with video on our YouTube channel too. Art Mentioned Picture Study Demonstration: The favourites of Emperor Honorius by John Williams WaterhouseJohn William Waterhouse picture study packet from A Humble PlaceArtist: Alphonse MuchaArtist: Vincent van Goch picture study packet from A Humble PlaceThe Night Watch FlashmobThe Night Watch High Resolution image from the Riijks MuseumThe Primavera by BotticelliThe Mona Lisa by DavinciMemory Game with Art BOOKS Mentioned (We encourage you to visit our sponsor, Eighth Day Books for books mentioned on our show. They are offering FREE standard shipping between March 8 and March 31, 2024 for our listeners.Coupon code: BEAUTIFUL )Thoms Bulfinch's Medieval Mythology (note: Age of Fable is another Bulfinch book that you can request from Eighth Day Books)Katie and the Mona Lisa by James MayhewFor the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer MacaulayParent's Review articlesCelebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Fost (Call Eighth Day Books to order your copy. 316-683-9446. Be sure to use the free shipping discount code through the end of March.)ANNOUNCING A NEW PROGYMNASMATA CURRICULUMBenjamin Lyda in partnership with Adrienne is launching a pilot for Scriptorium: Writing with the Progymnasmata for grades 3-8. For more information about participating in this pilot, visit the website: https://www.beautifulteaching.com/pilotANNOUNCING OUR FIRST CLASSICAL EDUCATION ONLINE CONFERENCE! 11 speakers, 2 days, online and recorded if you cannot attend all of the sessions! Early bird pricing only $69 though April 1. Visit our website for more information. ________________________________________________________This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.Support this podcast: ★ Support this podcast ★ _________________________________________________________Credits:Sound Engineer: Andrew HelselLogo Art: Anastasiya CFMusic: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic © 2023 Beautiful Teaching LLC. All Rights Reserved

About the GuestBenjamin Lyda has been head of a classical charter high school and founder of a Charlotte Mason inspired K-12 school.  His more than 20 years of teaching experience is wide and varied including teaching in urban and suburban settings.  In addition Benjamin regularly works with both advanced and struggling students in public, private, and homeschool settings.  He founded and ran The Children's Shakespeare Academy, directing full productions of the bard's plays for homeschool children 9-18.  He holds a Master of Humanities degree from The University of Dallas and is certified by the state of Texas to teach 6-12 grade literature, history, speech communication, special education, and debate. He is the author of Scriptorium: Writing with the Progymnasmata, a 3rd-8th grade curriculum.  He is married to his high school sweetheart and together they are bringing up six children. Show NotesBenjamin explains the ways in which modern approaches to writing hinder students from experiencing the joy and art of becoming a good writer. He shares his experience as a writing instructor and how the progymnasmata shines as a really great method for truly helping students learn and enjoy the craft of virtue-based writing. He was a previous podcast guest with his daughter, Eden. Children Delighting in Shakespeare aired in season 1.ANNOUNCING A NEW PROGYMNASMATA CURRICULUMBenjamin Lyda in partnership with Adrienne is launching a pilot for Scriptorium: Writing with the Progymnasmata for grades 3-8. For more information about participating in this pilot, visit the website: https://www.beautifulteaching.com/pilotBooks & Ideas MentionedThe Four Men by Hilaire BellocThe Rhetorical Exercises of Nikephoros BasilakesThe Foundacion of Rhetorike by: Richard Reynolds Institutio Oratoria: Quintilian________________________________________________________Beautiful Teaching is hosting its first Summer Online Classical Conference! We have 11 presenters. The early bird discount is only $69 till April 1 and then it goes up to $89 per person. For conference Information visit: https://www.beautifulteaching.com/conference________________________________________________________This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.Support this podcast: ★ Support this podcast ★ Credits:Sound Engineer: Andrew HelselLogo Art: Anastasiya CFMusic: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic © 2024 Beautiful Teaching LLC. All Rights Reserved

Colloque de rentrée 2023 - Apprendre et enseigner, de la préhistoire à demainLes progymnasmata : des exercices pédagogiques hérités de l'Antiquité et toujours d'actualitéIntervenant(s)Pierre Chiron, professeur émérite à l'UPEC, Institut universitaire de FranceSéance animée par François Héran.Chaque communication de 30' sera suivie de 10' de discussion.RésuméLes progymnasmata sont une double série d'exercices rhétoriques d'origines variées, constitués en cycle pédagogique cohérent pendant la période hellénistique, enseignés et transmis depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle européen, avec pour but de rendre l'élève (un adolescent) maître des formes discursives nécessaires aux interactions socioculturelles et à la citoyenneté. L'intervention portera sur la série progressive et ses principes (du simple au complexe, du ludique au logique), sur les exercices d'accompagnement, et leur objectif commun de rendre l'élève autonome dans la maîtrise pratique et critique de tous les types de discours.Pierre ChironProfesseur de langue et littérature grecques à l'université Paris-Est-Créteil (1998-2018). Président de la 8e section du Conseil national des universités (2011-2015). Membre de l'Institut universitaire de France (deux délégations : 2008-2013/2013-2018). Directeur (2008-2013) de l'École doctorale 529 « Cultures et Sociétés » de l'université Paris-Est. Président (2020-2024) de la Société internationale de bibliographie classique, propriétaire et responsable de la base de données L'Année Philologique.

Do Aesop's humble fables still matter today? Yes! Fables cultivate wisdom, start students on the “progymnasmata” writing program, and prepare them to share the gospel.

DJ Goodwiler joins us back on the show to discuss progymnasmata, a series of "pre-exercises" that our students practice before entering Rhetoric School.

The topos of the tyrant was a rhetorical weapon to defend democracy. The current "authoritarian moment" calls for a renaissance of this rhetorical exercise. A speaker can use "the topos of a tyrant" by recounting and elaborating on "the six vices of a tyrant": suspicion, cruelty, savagery, arrogance, immorality, and avarice. As Cicero stated, "when it comes to preserving the people's freedom, no one is just a private citizen." It is the duty of every citizen to guard against tyranny and from becoming tyrants ourselves.

Joshua and Valerie provide a behind-the-scenes look at how You Got Thirty gets made. As usual, the conversation returns to technology and social media. Valerie makes a personal appeal to the audience. #BeviFan Shownotes Rhetoric in Podcasting – Sounding Out the Progymnasmata, by Eric Detweiler Valerie’s #BeviFan tweet Joshua’s bed jokes Joshua’s tumblr   Subscribe […]

In this episode, Eric tries to discuss the limits of rhetorical mastery as well as a series of rhetorical exercises called the progymnasmata. Then a few unexpected guests show up and things take a posthuman turn. This episode includes brief clips from the following: 2001: A Space Odyssey Alien The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) Ex Machina Blade Runner Futurama Star Wars: A New Hope Terminator 2: Judgement Day and freesound.org  

When you were learning math, I bet you didn’t start by trying to solve P versus NP. When you were learning Spanish, I bet you didn’t start with creating your own translation of Don Quixote. When you were learning to write, did you start with writing thirty-page rhetorical analyses and speeches? Probably not.   The ancient Greeks thought it was probably not such a good idea to start out young rhetors on writing full speeches, so they came up with a series of exercises that teachers could lead their students through, exercises that would help students become more comfortable with language, learn the conventions of their culture and generally ease their way into the kind of speech writing they’d be doing when they became generals and politicians and whatever else they were planning on doing when they grew up. These exercises were called progymnasmata, which mean “early exercises.” You may recognize that middle part as sounding like “gymnasium,” so it’s easy to remember what progymnasmata means—exercises.   Anciently, the two most used sequences were written by Hermogenes of Tarsus and Aphthonius of Antioch. And the order in which the progymnasmata were taught were usually the same, more or less: starting with fable, students then work through, chreia narrative, proverbs, refutations, confirmations, commonplaces, encomiums, vituperation, comparison, impersonation, description and only then on to theses and defending or attacking a law.   Some of these terms you might not be familiar with but pretty much the idea was to start with simple stories and move up to arguments. But—and I think this is important—stories were an argument. We do this all the time, don’t we? ? So, Eric, what’s one of your favorite fables that proves an argument?   [Eric does his thing] These stories are deeply resonate in our society’s memory and we can use them as an argument, assuming our audience agrees with these stories’ premises.   In the progymnasmata of Aelius theon, he explains the importance of “making clear the moral character inherent in the assignments” (13). Our society values something about the morals of Romeo and Juliet and the tortoise and the hare and so when we learn them and how to use them, we are underlining things our audience already buys into.   One step more abstract than fables are proverbs: “A penny saved is a penny earned”; “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”; “If you build it, they will come.” We have many proverbs that exemplify what our society values—whether thrift, equality or building baseball stadiums for ghost players. When the ancient Greeks were educating their students about language and putting together arguments, they were also educating them in what kinds of arguments their society already believed in.   Chreias Krey-ya, which are maxims ascribed to a person, for example, not only tell the student what the society values, but also who the society values. Again, these are generally accepted societial values. For example, when people say, “When they were hanging Nathan Hale, he bravely declared, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country,’” they are not only affirming the value of patriotism, even martyerism, but they’re also saying that Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary spy, is the kind of guy that we should be listening to.   Older exercises take parts of a speech and go in depth like ekphrasis which describes something. Let’s describe this room: Go:   Another exercise, ethopoeia, takes it a step forward by encouraging students to write in someone else’s situation, “where someone is imagined as making a speech” as Hermogenes puts it, “For example, what would a general say when returning from a victory? … what would a general say to his army after a victory?” Farmer one, Dido, etc.   Encommium and invective involve praising or blaming a figure, usually someone everyone knows and on whom everyone has an opinion. Think of Gorgias’ famous “Encomium of Helen,” which tried to argue in favor of someone everyone hated, Helen of Troy, or Isocrates’ response in his own encomium. Usually, though, Encomiums and invectives were along the lines of what everyone already thought, but the rhetor’s challenge was to say something new.   Finally, students could work on thesis and antithesis Nicolaus the Sophis says that “Thesis is something admitting logical examination, but without persons or any circumstance at all being specified.” In other words, while students start with clear concrete stories and fables, they end being able to talk abstractly about frequently heard debates like “should a scholar marry?” or, to use ones more common in our day, “should we have the death penalty?” “is gun control moral?” “should abortion be legal?” or any of those other topics that you were probably assigned to debate in junior high. And just like in junior high, ancient greek students were expected to know how to debate both sides of the argument.   Once these progymnasmata were under the belt, so to speak, students could work on actual speeches with a context and an audience.   This method may seem a little old fashioned to modern pedagogies. In fact, yes, very old fashioned. These exercises continued not just in the ancient world, but into both Byzantine and Western Europe. The “themes” of the progymnasmata, argues Edward P. J. Corbett, had even more influence on “European schoolboys of the 15th and 16th centuries” than they did on Greek children. In fact, the idea that students need to first become conversant in parts before they can address the whole was later reformed into the “modes.” If you have a parent or grandparent of a certain age, you can ask them about writing modes and themes when they were growing up and they will tell you about having to write descriptions, narrations, and expositions before they were allowed to write arguments. Albert R. Kitzhaber chronicals the way that the modes became THE pedagogical tool for almost a hundred years here in the US, much as the progymnasmata dominated Europe for millennia. But Most compositionists these days say, “heck with prerequisites, get the students composing organically, making their first full attempts at a complete argument early, even if it means a short length or a superficial topic.” I’ve taught a class, for example, that begins with students ardently debating whether toilet paper should be hung over-hand or under-hand. This is probably the kind of education that you’ve had.   The progymnasmata, and in fact, the idea that there should be prerequisite writing exercises before argumentative writing, swings back and forth in pedagogy. Additionally, becaue the progymnasmata reflect societal values in their stories and common places, they can be seen as stifling individuality. George Kennedy points out that the progymnasmata “are open to criticism that they tended to indoctrinate students with traditional values “(x).   But the benefits of the progymnasmata have been appealing to modern composition scholars as well. Kennedy further says that “Nevertheless, it would be unfair to characterize the traditional exercises as inhibiting all criticism of traditional values. Indeed, a major feature of the exercises was stress on learning refutation or rebuttal: how to take a traditional tale, narrative, or thesis and argue against it. If anything, the exercises may have tended to encourage the idea that there was an equal amount to be said on two sides of any issue, a skill practiced at a later stage of education in dialectical debate."   Sharon Crowley and Deborah Hawhee point out that instead of giving students everything to do at once, the progymnasmata provide small exercises that lead to big results:” Each successive exercise uses a skill practiced in the preceding one, but each adds some new and more difficult composing task. Ancient teachers were fond of comparing the graded difficulty of the progymnasmata to the exercise used by Milo of Croton to gradually increase his strength: Milo lifted a calf each day. Each day the calf grew heavier, and each day his strength grew. He continued to lift the calf until it became a bull."   everything old is new again with the progymnasmata, and that’s a proverb that you can trust!

Welcome to Mere Rhetoric, a podcast for beginners and insiders about the ideas, movements, and people who shaped rhetorical history. I'm Mary Hedengren. Quintilian was a transitional figure of rhetoric. Born in a Roman province of Spain to a Spanish family at around 35 CE, he lived both geographically and temporally at the peripheries of the Roman Empire. Quintilian was, as everyone was, influenced by Cicero and the Greek instructors, Progymnasmata, which we've talked about in an earlier episode. He was deeply concerned with questions about the education of rhetoric. As a teacher of rhetoric, his students were mostly historians, like Tacitus, or authors, like Juvenal, instead of politicians. In fact, his student Tacitus will later argue that there wasn't much space for rhetoric as the Roman Empire became more authoritarian. Who's going to argue with an Emperor? But Quintilian was deeply interested in not just creating better rhetoric, but better rhetors. The most famous idea from Quintilian is probably his insistence that the rhetor will be a good person all around. Educated, kind, refined. As Bruce Herzberg and Patricia Bizzell say in their introduction, "Quintilian's insistence on the moral element may bespeak his own quiet desperation about what sort of leader would be needed to galvanize the corrupt Rome of his day." Whatever Quintilian's motivation, he explains in detail, hundreds of pages of detail, how rhetors are to be educated. >> That's right, Mary. To illustrate Quintilian's preoccupation with the intersection of ethics and the art of oratory, it's worth noting that his definition of rhetoric is "a good man speaking well.” Without good words and good morals, there cannot be good rhetoric. There can be no divorce between the content and the form of statement. The reverse was also important for Quintilian, that training in rhetoric could have some sort of moral impact on the student. Quintilian hoped that people would be more moral for their rhetorical training. Although he was teaching at a time when rhetoric and Roman society was at "no longer a severe discipline for training the average man for active citizenship." Good citizenship depends, not just on speaking technically well, but also morally well. How does the student develop this kind of technical and moral excellence in speaking? Primarily, through the impact of good examples. Nurses, classmates, and especially the teacher should "all be kept free from moral fault" or "even the suspicion of it." Classmates can have good effects on students. Instructors should also frequently demonstrate because now that we teach, examples are more powerful even than the rules." This sort of reminds me of the kind of scaffolding that Lev Vygotsky, Ridley, and Carroll talk about. When students are surrounded by students doing work that is just a little bit more difficult than what they're accustomed to, they can see how their near peers rise to the problems and learn how to imitate those strategies as well. >> So teachers, classmates, instructors, you can tell from all of these influences that Quintilian is so worried about, he believes in the little sponges model of pedagogy. Some influences like nurses and classmates maybe accidental, but Quintilian also emphasizes the conscious use of imitation exercises to strengthen the student. In fact, Quintilian declares that "an orator ought to be furnished, above all things, with an ample store of examples." The things that Quintilian recommends imitation, though, vary from the standard Progymnasmata. The Progymnasmata gave students topics like kidnappers and smugglers. Standard Hardy Boy stuff. But Quintilian believed that students should imitate the sort of things they're actually going to be writing. Real life writing. In this sense, you can see how Quintilian would be comfortable with some of the scholars who emphasize learning to write in the disciplines. All of this is sort of a social-constructed view of good rhetoric, even something a little pre-writing in the disciplines. Quintilian talks about how every species of writing has its own prescribed law, each to its own appropriate dress. So this sort of emphasizes the idea that there's not just one type of good writing and you can't teach somebody just good writing or good rhetoric. He saw that you needed to practice in the types of forms that you're actually going to be doing. This is really kind of revolutionary stuff and it's surprising that it didn't get picked up earlier until in the past, about 100 years has been a real emphasis on beginning to teach writing not just was a transferable skill, but something that is really specific to a specific task. But at the same time, Quintilian believed that his students should be generalists, because eloquence "requires the aid of many arts." So even things like gymnastics, to improve lung capacity and posture, and geometry should be taught to the would-be rhetor. A sort of balance between the liberal arts and sort of like a specific kind of technical training. But especially, you have this reading, writing, listening all being taught at the same time, because they influence each other, and Quintilian says that they are so inseparably linked with one another and that they should be taught, not as separate skills, but as sort of one fluid type of learning about language. >> That's right, Mary. Quintilian saw speaking, writing, and reading as important skills of course, but not things that could be separated from the human experience as a whole. In fact, Quintilian saw it as his duty as a teacher to cultivate not just good rhetors, but the whole person. That might sound a little authoritarian, but just because Quintilian believed that students should write real-life exercises, doesn't mean he didn't think that they should have fun. Rhetoric, in varying forms appropriate to age, surrounds the student's cradle to the grave. Little children and babies could be given alphabet blocks as toys, and young students should be allowed to play with their own writing and the student should be daring, invent much, and delight in what he invents. Practice alone, though, won't lead automatically to greatness. "Talent does matter, but he who is honorably inclined will be very different from the stupid or idol," Quintilian says, "and the wise instructor will give matter designed as it were beforehand in proportion to the abilities of each, and the teacher will help them to find their strengths and apply chiefly to that in which he can succeed." Help make students succeed. The students should be happy with what they are producing even if it isn't what a professional writer would write. Not everyone has to become a famous writer but any skill in rhetoric will pay dividends for the wealth, honor and friendship, greater present and future fame," Quintilian writes, "No matter how much or how little you obtain or feel you use." >>Unlike many other teachers of rhetoric, Quintilian rejected stylistic anachronisms and effects. "Language is excellent, perspicuous and elegant and should have the public stamp like currency. Current practices matter so much that custom in speaking, therefore, I shall call the agreement of the educated just as I call custom in living the agreement of the good." There's an obvious influence here on enlightenment rhetors like Hugh Blair who similarly reject the idea that you should speak in an old timey way and that you need to consider what the modern style is for your own region. Incidentally, Blair thought that Quintilian was the best of all the rhetoricians. Overall, students should develop fasilitas, the readiness to appropriate language for any situation. To be fluid with understanding what the social conventions are and how you can apply language to it. And after a good career, Quintilian even advises the rhetor to bow out gracefully, not full of reunion tours and botox, but to leave at your peak, "Because it becomes him to take care that he speak not worse than he has been in the habit of speaking." That's not to say that retired people are off the hook. They're still expected to study like Marcus Cato who learned Greek in his old age. But Quintilian definitely sets out a line of the entire rhetor's life, from their earliest years playing with blocks to when they retire at an old age. >>So Quintilian clearly would have been no fan of Rocky V and VI, is what we're saying there [laughter]. >>How many people were? [laughs] >>I think only a few perhaps. If all of this seems like a lot of work to raise the writer, then you're absolutely right. Quintilian describes such an involved pedagogy from cradle to grave, that the relationship is less like a teacher and more like a parent. The focus in Quintilian's pedagogy is less quick and dirty tricks, and more the formation of a rhetorical character. He feels that learning rhetoric will help make you a better person. The good man speaking well and because of that he passionately promotes a study of rhetoric. In fact, we can't put it any better than he does, so we'll end with his inspiring words and if these don't make you excited about studying rhetoric, I just don't know what will. "Let us then presume with our whole powers the true dignity of eloquence then which the immortal gods have given nothing better to mankind and without which all nature would be mute and all our acts would be deprived alike of present honor and commemoration among posterity and let us aspire to the highest excellence for, by this means, we shall attain the summit and if it does not ring great advantage to studious youth it will at least excite in them what I desire even more, a love for doing well." [musical outro]

Ekphrasis Welcome to Mere Rhetoric, a podcast for beginners and insiders about the ideas, people and movements who have shaped rhetorical history. I’m Mary Hedengren and, ah, here I am in my newly redecorated research cube. I’ve taped grey and yellow chevron wrapping paper over the old horrific 90s wallpaper and the books that completely fill my bookshelf are organized—somewhat. The tiny red and green Loeb editions look like Christmas decorations among the others and one whole shelf of books is tattooed with library barcodes. My door is propped open by the extra hard wood chair and is scrubbed clean—you almost can’t see the faint traces of pen from all of the strange graffiti, including one sloppy invitation for a previous occupant to get sushi. I’ve hung an orange-and-white abstract painting on the outside of the door and you can just see the corner of it from my seat. Why am I telling you about my cube in such detail? Because today we’re talking about Ekphrasis. Ekphrasis is the Greek term for description, a rich description that makes you see a scene before you in such detail that you feel like you’re actually there. Did it work? Did you imagine yourself in my cozy little cube? Last week I talked about a how there was a sculpture of kairos that someone had written a poem about and I called it ekphrasis, but I may have given a very short definition of just what ekphrasis is. I’ve been thinking about ekphrasis for a long time, largely because of a 2009 book called Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice. In this book, Ruth Webb seeks to rehabilitate ekphrasis from its long misuse. We think of ekphrasis as a describing a subject matter—art—in poetic practice rather than a method—bringing something “vividly before the eyes”—used for a variety of rhetorical purposes (1). When I first learned of ekphrasis, it was in a poetry class. The teacher showed us several poems that were written to describe pictures and then challenged us to find works of art that we could transfer into words. There are several famous poems that are ekphrasis. For example, do you remember Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn? Or William Carlos Williams’ poem about Landscape with Fall of Icarus ? Perhaps one of the most famous examples of ekphrasis, for ancient and modern students, is the description of the achilles’ shield in Homer. In fact, Webb figures that shield led to this confusion of describing an artifact rather than just describing something. Webb doesn’t just tell us what ekphrasis is not; she describes how Progymnasmata series of educational practices and other student handbooks influenced use and understanding of this tool that permeated rhetorical life from the arts (168) to the law courts (89) to the forum (131). Ekphrasis, then, isn’t just an ornament or a figure of speech—Webb claims that it is a “quality of language” (105), something that allows listeners and readers to become what she calls “virtual witnesses” of people, places, and events (95). You can imagine how it would be useful to bring your listeners in to become “virtual witnesses” if you were, say, a lawyer painting a picture of the crime, or if you were a politician petitioning for more military spending by describing a pitiful defeat. Through ekphrasis, your listeners become shared participants in an experience. You recreate an experience so we’re all together for a moment, seeing the same thing, feeling—maybe—the same way. Ekphrasis brings people in with you. Because ekphrasis is more than just an occasional strategy, Webb has to cover a lot of ground in her book. She begins by describing the context in which ekphrasis was named, admired and taught, back in ancient Greece where memory was always connected with imagery (25). “Seeing” something was critically connecting with how you think and remember. For example, do you remember in a previous episode on canons, where we talked about how classical rhetors would create a place, say a palace, and then place facts around that palace so that they could visualize walking around to encounter the facts? It’s the same practice that popped up recently in an episode of the BBC series Sherlock. When you have a clear visual reminder of a place, an object, you can better remember the abstract principles or facts. Another reason why ekphrasis was central to the Greeks was because of the way people encountered composition: whether or not a speech was written down, it was almost always spoken aloud (26). When you’re listening rather than reading, it can be difficult to pay attention to long abstracts, but being invited into a visual scene is refreshing and entertaining. No TV, remember? This understanding of literacy may seem alien to modern readers, so Webb has to explain them explicitly Then she introduces ekphrasis to us the same way it was introduced to Greeks and Romans: through the Progymnasmata and other handbooks of instruction. In the pedagogical explanation, Webb emphasized that ekphrasis was seen as formative for young learners, a tool to advance socially, and as an absolutely transferable skill (47-51). Remember when we talked about the progymnasmata? The exercises that young Greek students went through? Well, ephrasis was part of the progymnasmata exercises and Webb sais it was “the exercise which taught students how to use vivid evocation and imagery in their speeches” as “an effect which transcents categories and normal expectations oflangauge” (53). She then gives readers a complete chapter discussing the subjects of ekphrasis that go beyond just descriptions of works of art, and, in fact, often focus on narrative aspects (68-70). She really has to define the term because we have several hundred years of misdefinition of the term as only associated with art. Webb also introduces us to two versions of ekphrasis: Enargia which makes “absent things present” and Phantasia which she links to “memory, imagination and the gallery of the mind” (v). Here’s an example of enargia from Theon: “When I am lamenting a murdered man will I not have before my eyes all the things which might believably have happened in the case under consideration? […] Will I not see the blow and the citicm falling to the ground? Will his blood, his pallor, his dying groans not be impressed on my mind. This gives rise to eneragia,[…] by which we seem to show what happened rather than to tell it and this gives rise to the same emotions as if we were present at the event itself” (qtd 94). Phantaias on the other hand, is creation, which might include “mythical and fantastic beats […] imagines through a process of synthesis, putting together man dna horse” (119) for example, or it might just be creatively expanding on the details of what we aren’t told. Quintilian describes this in terms of a quote from Cicero: “Is there anyone so incapable of forming images of things that, when he read the passace in [Cicero’s] Verrines ‘the praetor of the Roman people stood on the shoes dressed in slippers, wearing a purple cloak and long tunic, leaning on this worthless woman’ he does not only seem to see them, the place [..] but even imagines for himself some of those things which are not mentioned. I for my part certainly seem to see his face, his eyes, the unseemly caresses of both” (qtd 108). So there you have it. Ekphrasis can be about things that were or things that can be imagined To use an example, enargia would describe a scene that was distant, like a visit to Disneyland, while Phantaisa would create a scene that was fictional, like developing a new Disney movie adaption.               Webb’s book is certainly readable and her argument is very thorough, taking in a very large range of Classical civilization, spanning several hundred years and including both Eastern and Western Roman Empires. She’s also made the convincing argument that ekphrasis was a little bit of the sublime that could be made an effective argument in almost any situation. Many texts that talk about rhetoric of poetics make the “audacious” claim that poetics can be rhetorical; Webb’s book seems to be claim that the rhetorical was often, poetic.             I’m especially interested in this ancient idea that one thing a rhetor needs to do is make the audience see it, to be there and experience the event or object—existing, historical, hypothetical, or fantastic—to be “virtual witnesses” of it for themselves. This seems to be an interesting link between a logos-centered viewpoint that admits only one clear interpretation of objective facts and the obvious realization that the audience was being brought into “worlds […] not real” (169). The audience readily give themselves up to the “willing suspension of disbelief” to order to feel, and experience, the fictive ( and no matter its veracity, the ekphrasis is always fictive, even when the object is before the audience) world the rhetor carefully creates through word choice and selective description. There’s something potentially deceptive about ekphrasis. And to make a clean breast of it, I’ve bamboozled you, because when I’m writing this, I’m not actually in my cube—I’m flying in a window seat with an orange sunset lighting up the cabin from over the north Pacific Ocean. Even worse, I haven’t even redecorated my research cube—yet. And I’m not sure where I’ll be when I actually record this episode. Right now, the scene I described so convincingly was a bald-faced…phantasia. But I made you a witness with me. Ekphrasis is so immersive that it can be hard to challenge it It’s too bad that we don’t know more about how audiences were trained to read these ekphrasis: the handbook information is wonderful for describing the theory and practice from the rhetor’s side, but what might be the equivalent for readers? How does an audience respond to ekphrasis? Should they be skeptical or allow themselves to be swept away in the description and become willing witnesses? Hey, I don’t have the answer to this question. If you have thoughts on the proper way to respond to the ways that words create worlds, drop us a line a mererhetoricpodcast@gmail.com? Until then, I’ll be enjoying my nicely redecorated research cube. Maybe.