西方的文学研究奠基于亚理士多德的《诗学》,寻求探究文学话语的类别、元素和技巧,以至诗歌体式的本质。嗣后的批评史大抵沿此蹊径,着眼于作品、题材和各种要素的关系等;相对而言,较少注意文学文本作为一种交际行为,如何在听者身上带来转变。亚理士多德所言的诗之“效”,集中于谈悲剧,且仅寥寥数语,语义不清。他对话语的研究,见于另一部著作,题为《修辞学》。这两部学术著作旨趣各异而又年代久远,实在教人惋惜,原因在于,亚理士多德所谈到的修辞问题实有助于文学研究,接受过文学训练的学生更能发挥技巧来改善话语,应用范围超越文字和戏剧,更涵盖社会交流。现代社会的种种发展,诸如公共界域、通讯技术、经济、人口统计、教育等领域,几乎无一不令我们成为种种形式的劝说的对象。我们身处步向后读写的时代,这样的情况只会愈见(而不是愈非)明显。本文认为人文学科的教育应加入修辞训练,内容不仅是教学生如何写文章、交报告或发表口头报告等,还要包括理论及评析的练习,来了解和分析如何在各不同领域中运用劝说话语。为说明此一需要,本论文分析了两个文本,一为文学作品,一为商业文字,分别选自莎士比亚的剧本和香港报纸上刊登的豪宅广告。本文透过分析莎剧中的修辞技巧,以及广告文字中的诗学意味,指出劝说话语的教育,无论在知识上、文化上、公民上等层面而言,都是有需要的。 Western literary studies are based on the “poetics” of Aristotle and seek to explore the categories, elements and techniques of literary discourse and the essence of poetic style. The subsequent history of criticism goes along this path, focusing on the relationship between works, themes and various elements, while relatively less attention is paid to how literary texts, as a communicative act, bring about changes in the listeners. The “effectiveness” of the poem by Aristotle focused on tragedy, with only a few words and semantic meaningless. His study of discourse, found in another book, entitled “Rhetoric.” The two scholarly writings are different and of different age. It really reminds people that the rhetorical question that Aristotle actually talked about contributes to the study of literature. Literary students are better equipped to improve their skills Discourse, scope of application beyond the text and drama, but also covers social exchanges. Almost all the developments in modern society, such as public domain, communication technology, economy, demography and education, have made us the object of all forms of persuasion. We are in an era of backward reading and writing, and the situation will only become more pronounced (and not non-obvious). This article argues that humanities education should be joined in rhetorical training, not only to teach students how to write essays, make reports or make oral presentations, but also to include theoretical and analytical exercises to understand and analyze how to use persuasive discourse in different fields . To illustrate this need, the essay analyzes two texts, one for literary works and the other for business writing, selected from Shakespearean script and mansion advertisements published in Hong Kong newspapers. By analyzing the rhetorical skills of Shakespearean plays and the poetic meanings in advertising texts, this article points out that it is necessary to persuade discourse education both in terms of knowledge, culture and citizenship.