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UDC 82.085
«RHETORIC PRACTICE» BY I.S.RIZHSKY (1796) AT THE MINING UNIVERSITY:
HISTORY AND CONTEMPORANEITY
Dar'ya A. SHCHUKINA, Nataliya A. EGORENKOVA
Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
The paper focuses on the continuity of rhetorical studies at the technical university. An analysis of rhetorical principles, described in I.S.Rizhsky's «Rhetoric Practice» (1796), is carried out. The author summarized methodical principles of teaching rhetoric at the first technical university of Russia - Saint-Petersburg Mining College. A comparison has been made between I.S.Rizhsky's work, classical treatises and the first Russian scientific rhetoric - «Rhetoric» by M.V.Lomonosov. It has been found that, following Lomonosov's scientific theory, I.S.Rizhsky created an original educational-scientific genre (rhetoric practice), addressed to a specific audience - students of Saint-Petersburg Mining College. The role of I.S.Rizhsky's scientific and educational activities in teaching humanities at the technical university has been defined. The paper justifies the necessity to republish works of scientists from 18th-19th centuries, whose names have left their marks in the development history of rhetoric as a study of Russian oratory traditions.
The paper also describes material of contemporary educational programs on the culture of speech, which focus on the historical tradition of Russian rhetoric. In particular, it has been noted that lecture and practical courses imply not only orthology studies (correctness, clearness, orderliness, expressiveness of speech), but also acquaintance with works on the history of European and Russian rhetoric.
Key words: rhetoric, rhetorical principles, contexture of scientific treatise, clearness of speech, oratory genres, «Rhetoric Practice» by I.S.Rizhsky
How to cite this article: Shchukina D.A., Egorenkova N.A. «Rhetoric Practice» by I.S.Rizhsky (1796) at the Mining University: History and Contemporaneity. Zapiski Gornogo instituta. 2017. Vol. 225. P. 376-384. DOI: 10.18454/PMI.2017.3.376
Introduction. 230 years ago a theorist and practitioner of Russian oratory, philosopher, logician, translator of educational and scientific literature Ivan Stepanovich Rizhsky (1759-1811), whose name is associated with the humanitarization program of higher education, began his educational work in the Mining College, the first technical university of Russia. He received his education at the Trinity and Pskov seminaries. From 1778 till 1786 he taught rhetoric, poesy, history, Roman antiquities and philosophy at the Trinity seminary. In the course of those years he wrote and published two books: «Reduction of Divine Service by Ancient Romans» (Moscow, 1784) and «Political Gatherings of the Ancient Rome» (Moscow, 1786 and Saint-Petersburg, 1788). In 1784 he also published two translations from Latin: «Brief Notion of Ancient Roman Senate» and «Dwindling of Mahometan Religion». In October 1786 I.S.Rizhsky was invited to Saint-Petersburg Mining College as a professor. The President of the Berg-kollegia wrote to Rizhsky: «As improvement of the capacity to express their thoughts clearly and to argue sensibly is an important requirement for the students, so that later they could be better prepared for the positions assigned to them, I wish you would undertake teaching rhetoric and logic to them» [13, p.65]. In the capacity of a full professor of Russian philology and oratory, I.S.Rizhsky spent more than 10 years teaching humanities: rhetoric, Latin, logic, history and geography. His educational activity resulted in «Rhetoric Practice» (1796) and the first manual on logic in Russia - «Good Sense, or Intellectual Philosophy» (1790), both written specially for Mining College students. Rare book section of the Main Library in Saint-Petersburg Mining University preserves a first edition copy of «Rhetoric Practice». I.S.Rizhsky's treatise is a treasury of original, eloquently formulated ideas on the subject of rhetoric, its purpose and components. The author defines oratory as a subject of rhetoric: «To capture imagination, persuade the intellect and touch the heart of another with a word - that is the fine art called oratory, which constitutes the main subject of rhetoric» [7, p.1]. I.S.Rizhsky also translated from French a book by P.S.Pallas «Brief physical and topographical description of the Taurica» (1795). Right after being elected a member of the Imperial Russian Academy (May 1802), Rizhsky took the pains to translate 12 selected speeches by Cicero. In 1811 Rizhsky completed his last treatise - «Science of Poetry», which was published at the expense of the Academy in 1811.
Methods. For the study of Russian rhetorical treatise, written at the end of 18th century, it is feasible to use a complex of linguo-cognitive methods, related to text analysis: selection of the scope of discussed topics and questions from the text under consideration; comparative composition analysis of thematically close works; search for common principles, similarities and differences when conveying the key information. As the main method, the authors used rhetorical analysis of the text, which allows to examine its composition, reveal examples of linguistic persuasion of the readers, assess means of the language and verbal expressiveness.
Results. Teaching, educational and scientific activity of I.S.Rizhsky contained numerous novelties or, using modern language, innovations. Even the structure of the manual «Rhetoric Practice» is innovative. It is composed of four parts: 1) «On the perfection of the word, which comes from expression, or on the embellishment»; 2) «On the perfection of the word, which comes from thought, or on the invention»; 3) «On the arrangement, or on various kinds of prose compositions»; 4) «On the style, or on the improvement of the word, depending on embellishment, invention and arrangement».
Classical antique rhetoric books have a different structure. E.g., Aristotle's «Rhetoric» is an extensive treatise on the art of persuasion, composed of three volumes. The first one describes general concept and main principles of rhetoric, provides a classical definition of rhetoric speech, based on the triad orator - speech - audience. Aristotle offers a clear, logically relevant typology of oratory speeches and examines internal principles of three speech types: deliberative, judicial, epideictic. The second book contains the fundamentals of oratory art and teaching on passions, morals and general methods of persuasion. The third book is dedicated to the problems of style and composition of speech.
In Russia the first original rhetoric was developed by M.V.Lomonosov. «Brief Guide to Oratory» (1747) is a scientific rhetorical theory, rendered in Russian. M.V.Lomonosov deemed it necessary to abandon the antique tradition and arranged the chapters in the following manner: «On the invention», «On the embellishment», «On the arrangement».
Thus, classical structure of the text is based upon the antique rhetorical canon; Rizhsky's compositional modifications were made on purpose and driven by the genre of the text being created. Justifying alternative composition of rhetorical manual, which differs from the classical structure, he emphasizes the need to take into account the targeted audience. As a reminder, the full title of the treatise is «Rhetoric Practice, Composed and Taught at Saint-Petersburg Mining College». The practicing pedagogue explains why he has changed the structure: invention principles «are obscure and intricate for the ones embarking on the oratory science»; at first it is better to introduce such principles that are easier than others and are the closest to grammar rules [7, p.7].
It has to be noted that way back in 1796 I.S.Rizhsky formulated an idea, which is still relevant today - about the citizen being responsible to the society, about the need to «master your mother tongue properly»: «To speak and write correctly, i.e. in fluent Russian, is the duty of every well-bred Russian citizen, but the writer has yet more responsibilities: on top of this, he has to be attentive that each of his words and phrases is neither higher nor lower than the expressed thought and perfectly fits the type and content of his writing» [7, p.11]. We see that in these lines the author refers to, in modern phrasing, communicative competence of the person as an essential element of forming the student's identity.
Basing on traditions of Russian rhetorical school, whose foundation is rightfully attributed to M.V.Lomonosov, I.S.Rizhsky understood a very close connection to linguistic and writing practice of Russian poets, writers, scientists and educators of the 18th century. A professor of Russian philology, I.S.Rizhsky creates an original educational-scientific genre (rhetoric practice), where he
successively applies pedagogic principles of teaching oratory rules to students of the Mining College using «the best Slavic and Russian books, especially recently published ones» [7, p.11]. In particular, tropes and figures of speech, invention rules for compositions, or rhetorical places, principles of arrangement, including different types of periods, are demonstrated on the examples of famous and stylistically perfect contemporary poems and prose works, e.g.: M.V.Lomonosov - poem «Petriada», «Letter on the Usefulness of Glass», «Panegyric to the Sovereign Emperor Peter I», «Panegyric to the Sovereign Empress Elizabeth Petrovna»; M.M.Kheraskov - poems «Rossiada», «Battle of Chesma»; G.R.Derzhavin - poems «God», «Mirza's Vision»; prose extracts from the almanac «Aglaya», authored, edited and published by N.M.Karamzin - «Something on Sciences, Art and Education», «What the Author Needs»; N.M.Karamzin - «Letters of a Russian Traveler»; A.P.Sumarokov - «The False Dmitry».
Guided by the need to intensify lexical work, I.S.Rizhsky dedicates the first chapter of his rhetoric to the issues of integrity of Russian language, attitude to bilingualism, rules of mixing Slavic and Russian speech. In revised and corrected edition of «Rhetoric Practice» (1809), created in Kharkov, the author uses the image of metal, probably inspired by the atmosphere of the Mining College, in the halls of which from the very foundation of the university its students could get acquainted with minerals and metals. In the opinion of the pedagogue, integrity of the language implies such speech, which is similar to the metal devoid of all contaminants, i.e. words and phrases, alien to this language [8]. I.S.Rizhsky links integrity of Russian language to the precision of word choice, clarity of compositions, which depends on words and phrases, to the flow of words and fluidity of sentences. A section dedicated to word embellishment holds a special position within the book. Rizhsky's definitions are clear and concise, e.g. general word embellishments are defined as «such expressions of thought that either by modification of the original meaning of the words or by specific arrangement and selection of the words and phrases make the composition either beautiful and pleasant, or magnificent and important. Usage of words outside their proper meaning, but always because of a certain connection between both meanings is a trope; whereas an unusual arrangement and choice of words or meanings is a figure of speech» [7, p.33-34]. Among the scope of tropes - allegory, catachresis, synecdoche, metonymy, metalepsis, emphasis, hypallage, hyperbole, irony, sarcasm, charientism - the scientists distinguishes metaphor as the most widely used trope, aimed at magnificence and importance of style.
The second chapter of «Rhetoric Practice» contains a review of word perfection, originating from thoughts. Antique rhetoric produced a special technique for spatial organization of reasoning and understanding, known as «topics», in which the term «common places» corresponds to stable content- and thematic-driven elements. Aristotle's description of semantic topos arises from persuading character of the speech. M.V.Lomonosov identified 16 common rhetorical places. I.S.Rizhsky, who in many aspects follows his predecessor and agrees with him upon the definition of invention rules as the most important component of oratory science, illustrates rhetorical places with vivid examples from compositions of Russian authors. E.g., to characterize the whole and its parts, I.S.Rizhsky cites Lomonosov's poem «Petriada», which depicts the house of Neptune (Lo-monosov himself describes the house of the sun after Ovid). In this chapter of rhetoric I.S.Rizhsky refers to poetic lines of his distinguished teacher especially often. Thus, the efficient cause is illustrated by an example from «Letter on the Usefulness of Glass», where the poet «with very picaresque description» speaks about the origin of glass. With the help of comparison «Mr Lomonosov multiplies and embellishes his panegyric to the sovereign emperor Peter the First» [7, p.99].
Thoughts, according to I.S.Rizhsky, must be «abundant, just, commensurate with the matter and composition, clear, natural and proposed with some reasonable condensation. But even more
embellishment to the word is brought by sharp, strong, brave, expressive, fine, honest and sincere thoughts, revealing author's deep understanding of human nature and passions» [7, p.64]. Description of general rules how to excite and repress passion concludes the second chapter of rhetoric.
The third chapter of Rizhsky's treatise «On the arrangement, or on various kinds of prose compositions» describes means of distribution, arrangement and connection of thoughts invented by the writer, analyzes traditional compositions of prosaic works (chreias, letters, declamations, dissertations, ceremonial speeches etc.), solicited in the Russian society of that time.
Theoretical material of this chapter is accompanied by examples of great pedagogic value. E.g., when illustrating grammatical changes (in modern phrasing, explaining the rules of syntactic synonym selection), the author uses the following expressions: love is earned with honesty; idle people are prone to corruptness. In other examples the author reveals his own shrewd observations regarding the power of words, coming from an orator who can peacefully solve debatable questions in interstate relations: «Mouth of the true orator is an organ proclaiming wisdom to the mortals, and each word coming from it is the sharpest arrow, piercing human heart; hence this natural wizardry has often directed and still directs thoughts and destinies of entire nations, nations enlightened, victorious, proud of their glory, conquests, laws; it is not seldom that they supersede multiple troops» [7, p.159].
I.S.Rizhsky considers period to be an important structural element of any speech. In his work he offers a detailed classification of periods (in modern phrasing - sentences), each one of them is explained and exemplified. Thus, the author divides periods into simple and complex, the complex ones in their turn are divided into several categories: causative, comparative, contrary, concessive, conditional, elucidative, relatival, consecutive and some others. Conditional period, for instance, is accompanied by the following statement: «If you start something which is not impossible, either inherently or by circumstance, then be certain that in case you show all your commitment, you will always reach the desired goal, despite all obstacles and inconveniences» [7, p.157-158]. I.S.Rizhsky highlights advantages of the complex period, which allows to prepare the listener for perceiving the main topic of the speech.
Commenting an aphorism is an obligatory task in any modern rhetorical competition. In the foundation of this popular intellectual exercise lies the model of antique chreia. I.S.Rizhsky believes that chreia is only known among orators, because it is nothing more but a specific way of composing short writings, or sometimes parts of big speeches. These writings include seven compositional parts: proposal, rationale, contraposition, comparison, example, verification, conclusion [7]. Autho-nian chreia has a more difficult composition. Instead of the first part (proposal) it is recommended to use two others: «In the first part after a praise to the author, just and relevant to the subject, one should use the author's own words, which serve as material of the chreia, the reason why this part goes under this name in rhetorics - words with author's praise. In the second part of the chreia the meaning of these words is amplified with one or several periods, which will be the content of the entire chreia» [7, p.177-178]. Thus, the topic of authonian chreia is the words of a certain writer. Chreias are used to compose letters and short speeches.
I.S.Rizhsky analyzes the composition of a so called big speech. This is the form that fully reveals the talent of the orator, because «a big speech is the most perfect oratory work, which should give the orator victory over ignorance, prejudice and bias» [7, p.152]. There are several types of big speeches: liturgical, civil, courtroom, academic.
Obviously, modern notions of the scientific style and its genres started developing in Russian philology back in 18th century. Among big speeches I.S.Rizhsky distinguishes academic ones and divides them into declamations, solemn speeches and dissertations [7, § 167, 168]. Dissertations are
characterized as compositions by «deeply enlightened men» [7, p.286]. I.S.Rizhsky remarks that «the content of these compositions does not require such art that excites imagination, i.e. it does not need rhetorical embellishment; on the contrary, their main perfection is in enlightened and profound ideas and their strong connection between each other» [7, p.287]. According to the author, there are abundant examples of such speeches, especially among compositions published by the Academy of Sciences.
Rizhsky's pedagogic observations on such type of academic speeches as declamations are also of great interest. In particular, the author mentions importance of correct topic choice for these speeches, as they are written as an exercise in oratory, and identifies certain stylistical distinctions of such compositions: «Hence everything in them, from the matter to the phrases, has to correspond to orator's skills and condition; for the same reason they always contain more embellishments than pure thoughts. Moreover, for the most part they are concise» [7, p.285].
Many bold observations, which I.S.Rizhsky expresses in «Rhetoric Practice», make assertions about the author's civic position, his opinion on specific features of social life and state structure in Russia of those times. For example, I.S.Rizhsky defines civil speeches as «important compositions, offered orally or in writing by state officials to other citizens or foreigners regarding the affairs associated with positions of the former» [7, p.281]. And later he mentions that in ancient times Roman history, and in his days English Parliament provided numerous examples of such speeches [7]. Apparently, in Russia such speeches were either very rare or altogether absent. It should be noted that civil speeches were studied by the particular rhetoric, the subject of which today, according to modern authors, is in consideration of rules and recommendations on making speeches in individual areas, types and genres of philology [2, 3].
Big speeches, apart from liturgical and civil ones, also include courtroom speeches, «made in the gathering of government or people, in accusation or vindication of someone. Currently they are used only in some foreign countries, but in Ancient Greece and Rome they were an important and most ordinary exercise for orators» [7, p.283]. In the meantime I.S.Rizhsky recognizes the difficulty of courtroom speeches, the need for specific talents and knowledge to compose such kind of speeches: «Surviving speeches of famous ancient orators demonstrate that such exercises required not only vast experience in oratory art, not only extensive knowledge of laws and customs, but also excellent education in all fields of philology. Everyone knows that Demosthenes and Cicero are considered masters of this type of oratory» [7, p.284].
Rizhsky's erudition is astounding; among authors of examples in his book we find names of mathematician L.Euler, historian Titus Livius, poet Virgil, philosopher J.-J.Rousseau, Marquise de Pompadour, politician and writer Pliny the Younger, German knight and diplomat Florian Geyer, brilliant orator and successful statesman of the Ancient Rome Cicero and certainly a famous scientist and pedagogue M.V.Lomonosov. For more examples I.S.Rizhsky redirects his readers to the works publishes by the Academy of Sciences and Moscow University.
Description of historical speeches, which contains many sharp and fair observations by I.S.Rizhsky - an experienced writer, scientist and pedagogue, concludes the third chapter of the book.
The fourth chapter of rhetoric «On the style, or on the improvement of the word, depending on embellishment, invention and arrangement» summarizes previous parts and in the scope of examined issues is similar to practical stylistics (it should be noted that by the time of this manual stylis-tics had not yet separated from rhetoric and become an independent discipline). Rizhsky's definition of the style is very close to its modern concept: «style is a general term under which we understand everything the composition borrows both from words and from ideas» [7, p.318].
The author engages in a discussion of Lomonosov's theory of styles and distinguishes three types of them: low, or simple, style; oratorical style; elevated style. The scientist holds the opinion that the low style is basically the same as colloquial talk; it is characterized by clarity and absolute precision of words and expressions and used in the following genres: conversations, letters to friends, narrations. There are several subcategories of the low style: conversational and written; depending on the application area - historical; on function - instructive; on the use of expressive means - meager and coarse. Instructive style is appropriate for the transfer of scientific knowledge, but special attention should be paid to the location of the writing and the way of expressing ideas, its (in modern phrasing - scientific style's) distinctions: comprehensibility, brevity and importance.
I.S.Rizhsky believes that in order to persuade the audience one should use «oratorical style». The author closely examines its subcategories: refined and philosophical styles, the first one is exemplified by Lomonosov's «Panegyric to the Sovereign Empress Elizabeth Petrovna», the second one - by speculations of a preacher. Here one distinctive feature of «Rhetoric Practice» should be mentioned: examples and citations, presented in the book - especially the ones belonging to author's contemporaries - usually are not attributed, which can probably be explained by fame and popularity of these works in Russia.
Elevated style (e.g., Lomonosov's poem «Peter the Great») is classified as «the most powerful oratory», the one that stands alone and «cannot persist continuously, but as a jewel shines only in special places» [7, p.351]. In our opinion, the image of jewels, used in this comparison, redirects the reader to the mineral collection of the Mining College. To compare prosaic and poetic styles, the author uses another image, based on natural observations. «Prose is like a beautiful field, which nature has dotted with various flowers; the word of a poet is a magnificent garden, where the best of the plants are carefully collected and elegantly arranged» [7, p.376].
Orator and writer should both improve their style, and the scientist offers the following ways of learning: exercise in composition, reading of good authors, their imitation and finally «acquisition of the right taste» [7, p.381]. It is speculations about the taste in oratory that conclude Rizhsky's «Rhetoric Practice». Aesthetic notion of the taste will be developed in more detail in the next edition of the book (1809) [8]. Here the author offers his understanding of the taste: «having a true taste in oratory means nothing else but, using elaborate intellect and multiple mental comparisons, to acquire separate notions about true beauty and actual ugliness of the human word, and according to these never be at fault in your own speculations» [7, p.395-396].
For modern editors and readers the publication form of 18th century scientific treatise is of a particular interest. Rizhsky's «Rhetoric Practice» begins with a dedication of the book to Director of the Mining College, Vasily Ivanovich Popov, the text lacks the table of contents, customary for modern editions, but it has a subject index, obligatory for all modern study guides. The margin contains notes in a special type - names of sections, which is convenient for readers, first and foremost students, working with the text.
It can be said that at the end of 18th century the author of «Rhetoric Practice» focuses not only on the problems of orthology (issues of correctness of the Russian language and its adherence to literature norms), but also issues of logic (construction principles of phrases and descriptions, speculations, argumentation), stylistics (functioning of linguistic units depending on situation, conversational aspect of professional communication). Basing on the analysis of «Rhetoric Practice», we can objectively estimate the significance of scientific and educational activity of I.S.Rizhsky in teaching humanities at the technical university and the role of humanities in the academic process of the Mining College at large. It should be noted that educational objectives, formulated in «Rhetoric Practice», are still highly relevant today.
It is impossible to imagine revival and development of contemporary rhetoric without remembering its history. At the same time, as V.I.Annushkin justly remarked, in the history of Russian philology rhetoric is the least examined field. The reason for terminological inaccuracy, inconsistency is inability to read classical texts on rhetoric and philology, which in its turn is caused by inaccessibility (the works are not published or republished) of the most important texts in the history of Russian rhetoric, especially handwritten or rare printed editions of 17th-19th centuries. It is evident, though, that objectively a contemporary scientist and pedagogue must have an idea of the rhetoric subject in 17th-19th century, both from full scientific editions and reviews and directly from the texts of rhetorical manuals [4]. In this context it is reasonable to raise the question of republishing I.S.Rizhsky's «Rhetoric Practice» (1796), as well as other treatises of 18th-19th centuries, whose authors have left their marks in the development history of rhetoric as a study of Russian oratory traditions.
Discussion of results. 18th century has introduced many novelties into the cultural life of Russian state: construction of a new capital - Saint-Petersburg, foundation of the first technical university - Mining College. Talented scientists and pedagogues were invited there, among those -I.S.Rizhsky, who wrote and in 1796 published in Saint-Petersburg an original manual on rhetoric, which was addressed to a specific reader - students of the Mining College.
In 20th-21st centuries in Saint-Petersburg Mining University philological disciplines are taught at the Department of Russian Language and Literature, founded in 1956 to teach Russian as a foreign language to overseas students. Now the department instructs students in the following subjects: «Russian Language and Culture of Speech», «Culture of Russian Scientific and Business Speech», «Culture of Speech and Business Communications». These academic subjects include the following sections: modern standards of formal Russian language, functional styles, rhetoric (culture of Russian speech).
To address pedagogic issues, the team of the department developed and published (as an appendix to the first issue of the journal «World of the Russian Word» in 2001) an educational program «Russian Language and Culture of Speech for Students of Technical Universities» [12]. The lecture course of this program has a computer version of lecture notes, and each teacher has his individual author's version. Research and methodology activities of the department in the recent years are aimed at creating a package of study guides for student seminars in line with the developed educational program. The concept of this training package implies that practical tasks are always accompanied by minimal theoretical comments. Teaching staff of the department, with assistance from colleagues from other non-humanitarian universities of Saint-Petersburg, have created practical manuals on the modern standards of formal Russian language and scientific style: «Practical Manual on Culture of Speech: Modern Standards of Formal Russian Language», under the label UMO of the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation (2004), «Guide on Scientific Style of Speech for Technical Universities» (2004). In 2006 Department of Russian Language and Literature published a study guide on rhetoric «Russian Language and Culture of Speech: Practical Manual on Rhetoric», which has a label of the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation and reflects original scientific-methodological concept and teaching experience of the department staff, acquired in the course of several years [11]. In 2011 the final part «Fundamentals of Business Communications» concluded the training package. The idea behind this manual dates back to 1995 [6]. It consists of five parts: «Introduction to Business Communications», «Written Forms of Business Communications», «Oral Communications in Business», «Organizational Communications and Corporate Culture», «Russian Business Culture: History and Contemporary State». Due to introduction of new disciplines into educational programs, the depart-
ment also published study guides «Russian Language and Business Communications» and «Culture of Russian Scientific and Business Speech» (2015).
Humanitarization of higher education implies introduction of philological subjects into educational standards of technical universities, which has a goal of shaping communicative competences of students, both in their professional field and in interpersonal relations. High demand for the specialist in the labor market, his competitiveness under new economic conditions to a great extent depend on the skills of efficient communication in different fields, based on rhetorical laws. Success of any professional activity is closely linked to understanding laws of communication, primarily professional, business and interpersonal ones, and the ability to use communicative strategy and tactics in real life. With this in mind, requirements to the quality of specialist training have changed, regardless whether it is a future mining engineer, engineer-metallurgist, oil and gas engineer, geologist, construction engineer, economist or manager in the fields of mining engineering and geological prospecting.
Staff of the department has summarized its experience of teaching fundamentals of rhetoric within the programs of philological disciplines at various scientific and methodology conferences and seminars: on the 9th International Scientific and Methodology Conference «Rhetoric in the System of Communicative Disciplines» (Mining Institute, 2005) [9, 10], on the 16th International Scientific Conference «Rhetoric in the New Educational Space» (Mining Institute, 2012), on the conferences held every two years by the Department of Russian Language and Literature at Saint-Petersburg Mining University [1]. 18th century «Rhetoric Practice» has been analyzed and reflected in scientific publications of the department staff [5, 14]. By adding issues of professionally oriented rhetoric to the educational process of the first technical university of Russia, the department actively develops scientific and pedagogic ideas of I.S.Rizhsky and adopts them to modern conditions.
Conclusions
1. «Rhetoric Practice» by I.S.Rizhsky is an original manual, based on the ideas of classical rhetoric. The uniqueness of this work lies in the fact that it is addressed specifically to students, which is reflected in the title itself - «Rhetoric Practice, Composed and Taught at Saint-Petersburg Mining College».
2. I.S.Rizhsky's manual is useful both for students and teachers, as, on the one hand, it contains substantial theoretical statements, described in the exact and carefully thought-out system, it has sufficient number of diverse examples from compositions of different genres, written by Russian and foreign authors; on the other hand, the manual offers methodological recommendations and pedagogical commentaries, which can be useful for the teachers of rhetoric.
3. Scientific and methodology activity of the Department of Russian Language and Literature on studying the issues of professionally oriented rhetoric makes it a relevant issue to republish I.S.Rizhsky's «Rhetoric Practice» (1796) for its subsequent use in the educational process.
Acknowledgements. We thank the Rector of Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Prof. V.S.Litvinenko, for his support of the Department of Russian Language and Literature regarding publication of study guides on rhetoric, Russian language and culture of speech, as well as regarding organization of scientific conferences dedicated to problems ofphilological disciplines.
We are grateful to the staff of the Main Library of Mining University and its director S.O.Nikitashina for the organization of our studies in the rare book section with the only copy
of I.S.Rizhsky's treatise «Rhetoric Practice, Composed and Taught at Saint-Petersburg Mining College», published in Saint-Petersburg in 1796.
We are thankful to Professor of the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language (Moscow), Chairman of the Russian Rhetorical Association of Rhetoric Teachers V.I.Annushkin for productive participation in scientific conferences, held at the Mining University and dedicated to the culture of speech and rhetoric, and for his support of the idea to republish I.S.Rizhsky's treatise «Rhetoric Practice» (1796).
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Authors: Dar'ya A. Shchukina, Doctor of Philology, Professor, [email protected] (Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia), Nataliya A. Egorenkova, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, [email protected] (Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia).
The paper was accepted for publication on 25 January, 2017.
