Dialogue et traité technique : le dispositif didactique et ses enjeux dans L’Économie rurale de Varron

Abstract

Focusing on Varro's Res rusticae, the article questions the choice of the dialogue form for its ideological and epistemological stakes, and demonstrates that the didactic device is problematic in many respects. Humour, in particular, deconstructs hierarchical relationships between masters and students, without however challenging the technical validity of the discourse. The dialogic form is neither a mere literary ornament nor evidence of a satirical scope of the Res rusticae, but places the didactic material within a cultural and ideological representation of Rome, while elevating agriculture to the status of a true science, through the adoption of approaches and methods borrowed from philosophy.

Keywords

• Varro
• agriculture
• dialogue and philosophy
• latin technical literature
• humour
• rusticitas