Talia dixit (Oct 2011)
Ekphrasis e enargeia na historiografia de Tucídides e no pensamento filosófico de Paul Ricoeur
Abstract
In the Greek schools of the Roman Empire, the handbooks of rhetoric (Progymnasmata) defined ekphrasis as a speech that brings the subject matter vividly before the eyes. These manuals also point to Thucydides as one of the best specialists in this rhetorical technique which consisted, essentially, to give vividness (enargeia) imagery to the speech as a way to engage the imagination and feelings of the reader. In this article we present a set of examples, taken from the History of the Peloponnesian War, which prove the skill of the Athenian historian to make us “see” the events in the mind's eye. After that and using the opinions of Paul Ricœur around history and fiction (from the normal and healthy coexistence between readability and visibility along with the ethic power of the textual image in situations that cry out applause or disapproval), we will see how this rhetorical and fictional strategy, used by Thucydides and recovered now by Ricoeur for the studio of contemporary historiography, can be reconciled with a discipline that aims at objectivity, impartiality and scientific rigor.
