Definition:
Intended or inclined to teach, preach, or instruct, often excessively. Noun: didacticism.
Didactic writing often makes use of the second-person point of view.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "to teach, educate"Examples and Observations:
- "What . . . do we mean by 'didactic literature'? It can be argued that every text in the early modern period had the potential to be viewed as didactic. Indeed, when Sir Philip Sidney conceived of reading of any sort as the best grounding for 'the trade of our lives,' he was far from alone in his commitment to this catholic interpretation. . . . [W]e have chosen . . . to concentrate mainly on those texts which were explicitly framed to instruct through the material they contained: amongst these are what we might today label 'how-to' books. Such books made their claims to educate and inspire from the outset, and were constructed both textually and physically, to achieve those goals: the ideal didactic text of this sort was ideally "a Manual that shall neither burden the hands to hold, the Eyes in reading, nor the mind in conceiving.'"
(Natasha Glaisyer and Sara Pennell, Introduction, Didactic Literature in England, 1500-1800, Ashgate, 2003) - "Dr. Spock could never understand why such critics as the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale and Spiro Agnew saw him in the 1960's as a proponent of instant gratification and rebelliousness. In advising parents, he was neither permissive nor authoritarian. His most famous suggestion was 'trust yourself,' a dramatic break from the rigid, didactic advice contained in parent guides until that time."
("Dr. Spock's Children," The New York Times, March 17, 1998) - "The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. . . . But the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work."
(Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, 1764)
Pronunciation: di-DAK-tik
