Declamazione e letteratura

This paper is a contribution to the most recent studies about the literature practised at the declamation schools, finding out its fictional aspect. In the first part, we will consider the importance and the risks of such a fictional value. We will go through some paragraphs of Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria (2, 10 and 10, 5); in fact, in this work, the author condemns some excesses, yet he keeps on considering declamation a good practice. In the second part of the paper, a particular case study will be proposed. We will focus on the character of the stepmother, according to the excerpta of Calpurnius Flaccus. We will also analyse four excerpts (4, 12, 22, 35), in which there is always a stepmother, so that we can show how this character, in spite of the apparently repeating and abstract motives, is particularly significant to better understand all the then social changes. As a conclusion, the character of stepmother is a perfect example of what the fictional literature, practised at the schools of declamation, can represent, beyond all the critical judgements against it.