ABSTRACT Traditionally, rhetoric is defined as the study and practice of persuasion, which is, according to Richards, “the theory of the battle of words and has always been itself dominated by the combative impulse”. This seems to have remained true. Foss/Foss even say that conquest rhetoric and conversion rhetoric have become almost “default modes of communication”. Scholarly communications do not seem to operate differently. Nonetheless, we can observe the emergence of diverse wave rhetorics, community oriented, in contrast with traditional “particle rhetorics”, individual centered. In this search toward wave rhetorics, recent Asian communication studies are not to be omitted. To deepen the research on these wave rhetorics, we need to reconsider the problem of language and misunderstanding, which is a main cause for communicational conflicts. This is a long and difficult process, which demands much imagination, creativity, and endeavor, but which is also well worth it.

We often hear it said that today is the era of rhetoric, but we do not yet have a rhetoric general enough to include both Western and Asian rhetorics. Here I try to show how the rhetoric of communication could operate as such a framework with special reference to the history of Korean rhetoric. I investigate the history of the term “susa,” present milestones in the history of Korean rhetoric, and use as illustration several cases of the rhetoric of “dakkeum.” Finally, 1 shall insist on the need for further development of the rhetoric of communication towards a global rhetoric.

La Corée a une longue tradition de pratiques rhétoriques, au moins de plusieurs millénaires, mais la rhétorique comme discipline est relativement récente. Le mot même de [inline-graphic 01i] / susa(hak), terme(s) traduit(s) de «rhétorique» fut emprunté du japonais probablement à l’Époque de l’Ouverture. À partir de l’idée inspirée par la réflexion sur la difficulté à traduire le mot «rhétorique», nous proposons, dans cet article, la rhétorique du dakkeum (approximativement la rhétorique de l’élaboration), qui est partie prenante de la rhétorique généralisée. Nous en montrerons deux exemples saillants: le problème de la mise à l’unisson de l’écrit avec le dao [inline-graphic 02i] (voie, chemin) dans les théories de l’écriture aux Époques du chinois classique et celui de la mise à l’unisson de la langue écrite et de la langue parlée à travers la controverse des écritures à l’Époque de l’Ouverture (à la civilisation occidentale). Comme coda, nous dirons un mot sur l’actualité de la rhétorique du dakkeum en rhétorique coréenne, et sur la possibilité de sa continuation dans les réflexions rhétoriques ainsi quedans les théories rhétoriques.