What do Aesop’s Fables, the Oxford English Dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, a science textbook, and an instruction manual have in common?

They are all didactic literature. But what is didactic literature? And is it still relevant? Let’s take a look. 

Definition: What is didactic literature?

Literature covers a wide range of readings. According to Webster, literature is “writings in prose or verse” or an example of such writings. Perhaps you took courses in school called American Literature and British (or English) Literature. In those courses, we read works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Browning, and other great writers.

But that is only one segment of literature. Graphic novels, limericks, memoirs, and how-to manuals also qualify as forms of literature that many enjoy.

But what is didactic literature?

Didactic means “designed or intended to teach.” This may be the primary or secondary purpose of the work; besides teaching, a piece of writing may be intended to entertain or amuse.

But doesn’t all literature teach us something?

We can certainly learn from any piece of writing, but to be didactic, a text must be designed or intended to teach. Instruction is not just a byproduct. Remember Aesop's fables? They have a stated moral lesson at the end. Not all didactic literature will have the message so plainly spelled out, but they will have the goal of teaching you something as the reader.

Historical context

Children's literature has always had a strong didactic element. Children need to learn about the world, and stories for children are often designed to teach proper behavior, moral precepts, and important life lessons, often in fun ways.

Drama is another historical context for didactic literature. Miracle and morality plays were often highly didactic. One of the most famous of the latter is Everyman from 1510.

Two popular genres of didactic literature in the thirteenth century were vernacular didactic poems and Books of Hours. They contained biblical narratives, saints’ live, moral instruction, psalms, and prayers, sometimes based on religious texts.

Fables, parables, and allegories are also historical examples of didactic literature, designed to provide instruction in memorable ways.

Key characteristics of didactic literature

Didactic literature must, first of all, be designed or intended to teach. Without this element, it is not didactic. More specifically, it should teach something more than trivial information such as phone numbers, addresses, and the parts of a car.

It isn’t enough for us to draw lessons from a text; the author’s intent must be to teach. Many people draw lessons from The Lord of the Rings, but J.R.R. Tolkien insisted that his intent was not to teach but to tell a good story. So, we would not classify his work as didactic.

Next, didactic literature must be an example of writings that have excellence of form or expression and express ideas of permanent or universal interest. Bulleted lists may be didactic, but they are not literature.

Finally, in the narrowest sense, didactic literature must fulfill a dual purpose: instruction and entertainment. This means that the author will seek the literary form (genre, story type) that best fits his or her intent. 

Didactic literature thus comes in many forms: children’s literature, essays, fables, fairy tales, fiction, mythology, legends, nonfiction, plays, poetry, and verse.

It also comes in many degrees. There isn’t a distinct separation between didactic literature and entertaining literature. Rather, they lie along a spectrum. Each writer must find her or his place on that spectrum—and it may change from book to book. Books for younger readers, for example, will tend to be more didactic than those for adults. And nonfiction more didactic than fiction.

Diane Ackerman’s book, The Zookeeper’s Wife, provides facts about Jan and Antonina Źabiński and portrays the horrors of the German occupation. It also tells a good tale. Ackerman doesn’t preach at or attempt to manipulate the reader. This is a solid piece of didactic literature.

A fiction author might depict the same situation in a time travel or historical fiction story. The adventure will be paramount, but if the author desires to teach readers about the setting, the Nazis’ crimes, Polish resistance, etc., the work is didactic literature.

Examples of didactic literature

We’ve already seen some examples of didactic literature in our consideration of the historical context, but here are a few more.

Aesop’s Fables are one of the most well-known collections of didactic literature. In addition to telling a story, such as The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The North Wind and the Sun, each fable contains a moral, the point of the tale.

Myths and Legends are didactic in that they teach about the way the world is and how it got that way. Kipling’s “Just So Stories,” while not what we typically consider myths, are origin stories about such things as how the leopard got its spots. The lessons don’t have to be true to be didactic.

Holy Books, designed to instruct and entertain, are didactic literature. In 1 Corinthians 10:11, after citing several events recorded in the Torah, the Apostle Paul writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” [Emphasis mine] In the following verses, the author states some of the lessons.

John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is an extended spiritual allegory, written for didactic purposes as the allegorical character Christian embarks on his journey to the Celestial City.

Essay on Man by Alexander Pope is a moral treatise that uses satire to teach its lessons.

Fairy Tales are often intended to teach the innocent about the dangers of the world and the caution we must take: don’t speak to strangers, obey your parents, bravery means facing your fears, etc.

In 1882, Mark Twain wrote “Advice on Youth,” a highly satirical essay on adult mores and institutions in six tongue-in-cheek lessons.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens provides us with an example of a Victorian Era didactic novel.

Already mentioned for his “Just So Stories,” Rudyard Kipling offers his poem, “If.” The last stanza is often quoted as advice for a young man (or anyone, for that matter.):

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.

Is didactic literature still relevant today?

Has modern society outgrown the need for didactic literature, i.e. fiction? Sometimes it might seem so, given our society’s emphasis on data collection and informational texts.

Yet, a good story brings many benefits, as a 2018 article in Psychology Today indicates.

Harvard Business Review in 2020 noted that “fiction is an effective way to enhance the brain’s ability to keep an open mind while processing information” and that “reading literature requires us to slow down, take in volumes of information, and then change our minds as we read.”

Didactic writing and literature remains highly relevant and necessary today.

Where have you seen the most entertaining didactic literature or work? Share in the comments.