Lectures du Panathénaïque d’Isocrate : de l’éloge à l’œuvre ouverte. Introduction. 

Abstract

Isocrates occupies in the history of education and rhetoric a place that is both central and paradoxical: he contributed greatly to the development of art prose; he engaged in a practice and teaching of philosophy that differed from and competed with the teaching of Aristotle and Plato; and he was always eager to advise his city away from the public assemblies. Compared to his certain posterity, his mixed reception in modern times has been biased by disciplinary boundaries. The relative revival we have seen in recent times is partly due to a broader approach to philosophy and to the vitality of studies in the field of rhetoric. The survey of the Panathenaicus, a testamentary, introspective and retrospective speech of a teacher, allows us to have an overview over the whole career of Isocrates, his methods and his favorite subjects: use of praise to deal with Greece's past, political thinking about history and political regimes, inclusion of the reader in the discourse, interweaving of (pedagogical) dialogue and discourse, invention of literature, innovative interpretation and exegesis of texts... The readings proposed in this volume analyze all of these issues.

Keywords

• Rhétorique
• Enseignement
• histoire
• Éloge
• Lecteur
• Discours