ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical development and current state of studies in intercultural/contrastive rhetoric, with a focus on the ‘vexed notion of culture’. This account offers insight into the challenges that scholars and researchers in this area of specialisation have faced since the early days of contrastive rhetoric studies in the 1960s. In addition to drawing attention to key figures and developments, the author suggests possible future directions for research in intercultural rhetoric and calls for more critical attention to be paid to notions of ‘culture’, ‘intercultural’, and ‘rhetoric’ within the context of ‘global cultural flows’. Atkinson argues that this is essential if intercultural rhetoric is to produce a better understanding of culture-writing connections and lead to the development of more effective ways to teach L2 writing.
