Towards A New Model Of Rhetorical Criticism

Rhetorical criticism (RC) has become the central activity in contemporary Western rhetoric since Herbert Wichelns published in 1925"The Literary Criticism of Oratory". In the last few decades, an increasing number of articles and works have appeared, probing RC theoretically or applying its various models to the areas of politics, religion, science, etc. However, according to the survey of the major models, there exist the problems of rhetorical distinction, of easy operation, of wide applicability. As to the case in China, the term of"rhetorical criticism"still sounds exotic to the majority of researchers, and lacks a systematic study. This project, therefore, will conduct a systematic inquiry into RC by focusing on its model, with the aim of promoting rhetoricity, operativity, and applicability, by proposing a new RC model which satisfies all three qualities.This investigation primarily adopts a qualitative research method, progressing logically with verbal description assisted by tables and diagrams where necessary; its principle of criterion sampling has been employed in selecting representative texts from different genres for the application of the new model. In addition, this study takes in related theories from philosophy (logic, esp.), linguistics (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) and psychology (social psychology) as its methodological tools. As to the rhetorical theory itself, the exploration is based upon classical Western rhetoric, supported by its contemporary research, and related Chinese works; the discussions mainly rely on first-hand sources to guarantee validity; and the whole project progresses, soundly, in the process of digestion and creation.The present research makes contributions to the following aspects: 1) redefining properly the key term of"rhetorical criticism"; 2) clarifying the essential function of RC; 3) systematically contrasting five major RC models and revealing their respective limitations; 4) justifying a new RC model with distinct rhetoricity, easy operativity and wide applicability; 5) applying successfully the new RC model to the interpretation and evaluation of ten discourses from advertisement, news reporting, speech, business letter and academic writing. Moreover, upon comparison and demonstration, answers to the controvertial object of RC and procedure steps of RC have been suggested; and new light has been thrown on comprehending conceptions of"invention","stasis","enthymeme", etc. The originality of this inquiry lies chiefly in redefining the crucial concepts, such as"rhetorical criticism","rhetorical situation", and in extracting convincingly elements and subelements from the categories of"invention","style"and"rhetorical situation"(which constitute the new RC model), so that those former vague terms turn out to be clear, concrete and applicable. Also manifest is the originality in the analysis of the discourses with the new RC model. Here, not only is stasis combined with enthymeme in interpreting"invention"strategy, but propriety and clarity of"style"are judged upon stasis or enthymeme, overcoming the former single dimension or category isolated criticism.With the newly constructed RC model and its application, this study shows RC's unique interpretation which may help establish, in China, RC's indispensable position in discourse analysis. It is envisaged that the exploration of RC's rhetoricity, operativity and applicability may provide theoretical reference for the improvement of existing RC models and for the construction of further new RC models. The findings will also serve as feasible methods in both discourse analysis and composition teaching, and may offer instructions for other applied areas such as speech making and advertisement designing.