比较修辞学识解:动因、核心思想与研究方法

Illuminating Comparative Rhetoric:Motivations,Core Ideas and Research Methods

比较修辞学是近年来在美国日渐壮大的一个修辞学流派。二十世纪末全球的文化政治环境以及修辞学界的几种思想误区促使修辞学者们寻求新的出路,从而提出了比较修辞学。比较修辞学崛起过程中逐渐明确了其核心思想,其研究方法总体来说是语境重构。本文探讨比较修辞学的两大动因,围绕四个令人困扰的问题对核心思想进行阐述,并且描述几种具体的研究方法。

Comparative rhetoric is an increasingly flourishing school of rhetoric in America.Cultural and political situations toward the end of the twentieth century,together with some erroneous ideas,motivated some rhetoricians to seek a new way of critical engagement-comparative rhetoric.A set of core ideas has now emerged out of its young history.The overarching method of comparative rhetoric is recontextualization.This paper explores the two major motivations,formulates the core ideas by answering the four perplexing questions,and interprets the major research methods.