Comparative Studies on Rhetoric Strategies in Democratic Athens

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19KK0296
• Research Category: Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (A))
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Sato Noboru 神戸大学, 人文学研究科, 教授 (50548667)
• Project Period (FY): 2020 – 2023
• Keywords: 古代ギリシア / 西洋古典 / 修辞学 / レトリック / 歴史 / 文学 / 歴史叙述 / 喜劇

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The previous project analysed the forensic orations in Classical Athens, focusing on how judicial, religious, social and cultural conditions influenced the Athenian culture of persuasion in the 4th century BC, and what rhetoric was established and contributed to audience persuasion. Based on the results of this study, this project conducted a comparative analysis of oratories and descriptions of meetings in various literary genres. The research has revealed that litigants deployed different rhetorical strategies from those of speakers in the Assembly and that literary works such as tragedies, comedies and historiographies, when describing the speeches and meetings in the courtrooms and assemblies, deployed similar rhetoric to the one in forensic and symbouleutic speeches of their contemporaries, to some extent, but that they also used different rhetorical strategies to persuade their respective readers and audiences, according to the author's intentions.

Free Research Field

古代ギリシア史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は古典期アテナイの民主政を、旧来等閑視されてきた演説文化という視点から見直し、実践的修辞戦略という観点から具体的に描き出すものであった。古典期アテナイの法廷や民会が、それぞの環境や歴史的背景に応じて、会衆説得の技法を発展させ、独自の民主政文化を発展させていたことを明らかにした点に、本研究の学術的意義がある。また、アテナイの実践的修辞的技法の多様性と戦略性を明らかにしたことは、民主制の危機が叫ばれる現代において、同時代の政治言説や社会運動を理解する上でも、また今後、熟議的（討議的）民主政治を成熟させていく上でも、有意義な知見を提供することに繋がり、この点に本研究の社会的意義があると言える。