Reading Mandela
Genre Pedagogy versus Ancient Rhetoric
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v9i2.177Keywords:
Rhetoric, SFL, Genre Theory, Epideictic Discourse, MandelaAbstract
This rhetorical contest was originally written and performed in 2002 to awaken adult literacy practitioners to the forgotten history of rhetorically-based language pedagogy, a pedagogy that still functions as the repressed unconscious of many modern approaches. Recently it has been re-staged at three linguistics conferences. The performance stages a mock court trial, a key rhetorical contest, in which two protagonists interpret a text by Nelson Mandela. One protagonist is leading contemporary linguist from the so-called 'Sydney School', Professor Jim Martin; the other is Quintilian, holder of the first Roman chair of Rhetoric. It is hoped that re-staging this contest at linguistics conferences may perhaps pique enough interest for linguists to re-examine this largely forgotten, but vibrant tradition of language study and pedagogy.
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