Didactic negotiations

• Main Author: Trygve Svensson
• Format: Article
• Language: Danish
• Published: Scandinavian University Press/Universitetsforlaget 2017-01-01
• Series: Edda
• Subjects: Ludvig Holberg; Early Enlightenment; Comedy; Rhetoric; Negotiations; Quentin Skinner
• Online Access: https://www.idunn.no/edda/2017/03/didactic_negotiations

Abstract Ludvig Holberg’s The Political Tinker (1723) is often interpreted as either politically conservative or as an apolitical, psychological satire. This paper claims we should understand this play as a highly political and educational work with subversive potential – without simplifying Holberg’s ideological position as an absolutist. I use Quentin Skinner to ask the question, what was Holberg doing? The answer can be found in Stephen Greenblatt’s terms: He was negotiating. I claim that these two theorists are appropriate for a rhetorical analysis of this early Enlightenment text, and that the term “negotiation” provides a richer understanding of communicative action than Skinner’s approach alone. By considering the context of the play – that is, its inspiration from rapid changes in the public sphere, and real events in Hamburg – one can see how Holberg performed authority and early rhetorical citizenship in a way that made the comedy a specific, didactic form of negotiation.