Children’s and Young Adult literature and classical rhetoric: Connections and opportunities for Civic Education

This paper presents a research intervention with a qualitative approach conducted in Italian secondary schools as part of a broader interdisciplinary Research Project of National Interest, entitled PROgymnasmata for Citizenship, Inclusion, and Valid Education. A revisitation of the progymnasmata, or rhetorical exercises used in ancient Greco-Roman schools, inspired the project. Progymnasmata contributed to a person’s overall development and democratic coexistence by teaching them words. Recent research confirms the progymnasmata’s propaedeutic role in citizenship development. Similarly, discussion on the themes of certain “radical” contemporary children’s literature might unleash its transformative political potential in public life. The participants, students aged 17 to 19, worked on selected picture books and graphic novels along with ancient texts addressing the themes of “walls” and “migrants/refugees”. The significant responses gathered in our exploratory study show the opportunity created by the use of juvenile literature within the revised progymnasmata pedagogical framework, in which controversial topics were discussed and argued following a template to guide the composition process and finally read aloud.