Didactic

Didactic (pronounced dahy-dak-tik)

(1) Something intended for instruction; instructive:

(2) Inclined to teach or lecture others too much.

(3) In art or literature, containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated.

(4) The art and science of teaching (if used with a singular verb).

(5) In medical education, of or relating to teaching by lectures or textbooks as distinguished from clinical demonstration with patients.

1635-1645: From the French didactique (fitted or intended for instruction; pertaining to instruction), a Latinized adaptation of the Ancient Greek διδακτικός (didaktikós) (skilled in teaching), from διδακτός (didaktós) (taught, learnt), past participle of didaskein (teach), from διδάσκω (didáskō) (I teach, educate), from the primitive Indo-European dens (to learn), source also of the Sanskrit dasra (effecting miracles).  The adjective autodidactic (self-taught) is from 1838, from the Greek autodidaktikos (self-taught) the construct being autos (self) + didaktos (taught).  The adjective didactic (fitted or intended for instruction; pertaining to instruction) has been in use since the 1650s while the noun didactics (the science of teaching) dates from 1836, the noun didacticism (practice of conveying instruction; tendency to be didactic in style) is attested from 1841.

In the original Greek, didacticism was a description of educational technique or content that emphasized instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art.  In the Hellenic tradition, the didactic signified learning in a fascinating and intriguing manner, supposed both to entertain and to instruct.  Didactic plays, of which the Greeks wrote many, were intended to convey a moral theme or other truth to the audience so the word was thus either neutral or positive.  In English, during the nineteenth century, the meaning shifted and didactic came be used as a criticism for work felt to be overburdened with instructive, factual, or other educational information, to the detriment of the enjoyment of the reader.  The use has persisted to this day and the word seems now seldom to appear without an adjective (needlessly didactic, excessively didactic, pedantically didactic, academically didactic etc).

The King's English (1997) by Sir Kingsley Amis (1922–1995), Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780141194318, 272 pp.  Recommended to read, much fun, though not all his prescriptions should be followed.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in his essay The Poetic Principle (1850) called didacticism “the worst of heresies”.  Kingsley Amis in The King’s English wasn’t as emphatic but was inclined to the view an author unable to succeed in their didactic purposes without boring the reader, just wasn’t a good writer.  One does wonder if he had in mind the works of his son and he was more acerbic when commenting on one of Martin Amis's interviews in which he'd said readers should really read his novels twice fully to understand them.  "That means the little shit has failed doesn't it?" observed the father.