当代西方修辞学科建设:迷惘与希望

当代西方修辞学科建设近三十多年来步履蹒跚 ,未能取得人们一度预期的重大突破。造成这一状况的原因固然很多 ,西方修辞学界将目光局限于学术话语内部 ,仅期望通过和其它学科的互动确立自己的学科地位 ,则无疑是其中的一个关键因素。修辞研究是西方人文和社会科学中和实践的关系特别密切的一个部门。修辞学科的中心任务是对发生于当代西方社会、文化、政治生活中的各种修辞实践高屋建瓴地作出富有阐释和指导意义的理论表述。如果忽略了这一根本任务 ,西方修辞学科将难以摆脱被边缘化的命运 ,更不用说将自己发展为一门当代显学。

The Prospect of Western Rhetoric as a Discipline

Once full of promises, the disciplinary development of West ern rhetori c has been disappointing over the past three decades. While many factors may hav e contributed to the lack of a real breakthrough in this case, the inability of contemporary rhetoric to turn its own theoretical gaze beyond the academe, as we ll as its failure to take a keen interest in rhetorical practices within a broad social context, is chiefly responsible for its continued marginalization.