Derived from the Latin declamatĭo, the concept of declamation revolves around the act of declaiming. This verb, according to its theoretical definition, describes the action of speaking in public or reciting with the appropriate intonation, mime and gestures.
In this sense, we can make it known that there are various contests and declamation contests worldwide that try to recognize the qualities for oratory and speech that some people have. Thus, for example, we can mention the “Diego Granados Jiménez” National Declamation Contest, which has been held for more than ten years and is convened in the Almeria town of Albox.
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The oral expression that is made in public can receive the name of declamation.
Declamation techniques and tactics
There are several techniques that anyone who is interested in characterizing himself by his exquisite and praised declamation must strictly comply with. In this case, the first golden rule is that he must be a good reader and that also means that he knows how to understand everything he is reading.
The second vital tactic is to take the breaks that are convenient and necessary. Thus, every reciter must know and know perfectly the amount of pause time that he must carry out based on the various punctuation marks that appear in the text that he is reading. And it is that both the comma, as the point, the semicolon or the suspension points differ in terms of silence time.
In this sense, it should also be stressed that it is very important, in order to make a good declamation, to know the pause and the intonation that the colon brings with it. And it is that it is necessary to achieve with both the attention of the public at that moment.
The third key to any good reciter, how could it be otherwise, is to have an exquisite diction, since it is the way that his listeners receive what he is expounding with total clarity.
There are techniques and resources that allow you to improve declamation.
The art of reciting
When speaking of declamation, in any case, mention can also be made of the art of reciting in the context of a theater, the speech delivered in a vehement way or the speech in general.
The concept of declamation, then, can refer to the performing art in general, such as dance or theater. It implies the existence of an audience that remains attentive and observes the actions represented by the artists.
As an artistic discipline, declamation constitutes an interpretation that seeks harmony between the voice, the meaning of words, music, gestures and body movement.
Declamation and rhetoric
The declamation appears linked to rhetoric, a discipline that studies the procedures and techniques used in language, especially those used for aesthetic or persuasive purposes as well as communicative.
In this sense, rhetoric is presented as a set of resources and rules that work at different levels during the construction of the discourse. For rhetoric, a speech is composed of a linguistic structure that includes inventio, dispositio and elocutio ), just as for oral activity it uses memory and actio.
It should be noted that rhetoric and declamation can transcend the field of arts and aesthetics. They are used, for example, in the presentation of arguments and in the defense of positions during legal proceedings. In the same way, they can be present in the educational field, when students must expose their knowledge in front of teachers.
