Abstract: Rhetorical criticism enjoys a long history of studies, and the research in this field upsurged at the end of 20th century and the beginning of 21st century. In the article, the author aims to investigate the developmental trends in this filed at home and abroad by a literature review of the studies in the past two decades. It has been proved in the research that domestic studies can be classified into four types—introducing theories of western rhetorical criticism in the U.S., building new models of western rhetorical criticism, comparing theories of Chinese and Western rhetorical criticism, and applying western rhetorical criticism into domestic use; while studies abroad in this field, especially in the U. S., keep deepening and upgrading its theories on the basis of its profundity, and enlarging its research scope. A literature review of western rhetorical criticism in the past two decades can provide some academic nutrition to domestic research and deliver certain implicational meaning to it. In the future, more studies should be carried out to systematize the theory of western rhetorical criticism and to incorporate the updated theory into the analysis of rhetorical practice in our country, thus expressing the strong interpretative power of western rhetorical criticism.

Keywords: western rhetorical criticism; western rhetoric; rhetorical theory; theoretical review; models of western rhetorical criticism

摘要： 修辞批评研究由来已久，但真正的研究热潮始于20世纪末期至21世纪初期。本文采用文献综述的方法对近20年的国内外研究现状进行述评，进而归纳出国内外该领域不同的研究趋势。研究发现，国内西方修辞批评的研究主要集中在引介国外修辞批评理论、构建新的西方修辞批评模式、对比中西修辞批评理论以及洋为中用等方面；国外西方修辞批评研究，尤其在美国，则主要在原有深厚的基础上，不断深化并更新原有修辞批评理论、拓展修辞批评的研究范围。梳理近20年的西方修辞批评研究，可为我国的西方修辞批评研究提供一定的借鉴意义。未来应继续加强修辞批评理论研究的系统性，并不断促进西方修辞批评与我国修辞实践的对接研究,进而展示西方修辞批评的阐释力。

关键词: 西方修辞批评, 西方修辞学, 修辞理论, 理论综述, 修辞批评模式