Disembodied Voices: The Problem of Content and Form in Theories of Genre (original) (raw)

Genre and the New Rhetoric.:Genre and the New Rhetoric

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1995

Canada, and a preface by the series editor, is one of two volumes arising from a colloquium entitled "Rethinking Genre," held at Carleton University, Ottawa, in 1992. Published as the 11th volume of a series on literacy and education, Genre and the New Rhetoric joins the fairly recent trend in genre studies that, in reaction to the formalist approach, emphasizes the social aspects of genre. The volume conducts the reader from general toward more particular, and finally educational, issues through four parts: an introduction illuminating genre in a historical perspective; a part discussing theoretical issues; a part investigating specific genres; and the last part addressing pedagogical challenges.

Towards a theory of genre? Reflections on the problems and debates on theorising ‘genre’

The concept of a theory of genre continues to be elusive. The criterion used for the generic classification of texts (both spoken and written) as belonging to given genres seems to continue to be clouded in ambivalence. Current scholarship in its divergence implicates criterion based on either communicative purpose (Swales, 1990: Chandler, 1997) or purpose and audience/discourse community. Other scholarship argues for a content based approach - often including the context as well - (Bhatia, 1981: Chandler, 1997) whereas others argue for a classification based on linguistic structure. On the other hand, recent scholarship has taken a more stylistic approach that adopts a features discrimination (Widdowson, 1998: Bhatia, 1981, Halliday 1994). This paper examines the weaknesses of these approaches working independent of each other and proposes an approach that synthesises tenets from mainstream genre analysis, discourse analysis and linguistic stylistics to create a holistic and more concrete approach to generic segmentation of texts. It argues that the creation of a theory should be based on an established/establishable ‘general bundle of tenets’ that explicate the primary concerns of the theory and that these should be concrete. It therefore adopts a discourse analysis – mainstream genre analysis – linguistic stylistics dialectic approach to suggest a possible ‘bundle’ of basic tenets for use in the generic discrimination of texts within a theory of genre. It suggests that ‘genre’ theorisation from the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective offers a possible way out of the theoretical conflicts with ‘genre’ theory.

Where is the subject? Rhetorical genre theory and the question of the writer

Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 2014

The question in my title arises from the tension between two positions currently held in genre theory: On the one hand, purpose is attributed to the genre, whereas on the other, it is attributed to the subject, whether or not dispersed across participation in a variety of conversations. This difficulty raises an urgent question in the conception we hold of the learner. My paper surveys some recent contributions to the literature on genre and teaching in which this issue is raised. The objective of the paper is to explore the nature and the stakes of the question raised; it will not claim to answer it.

“Toward a Cognitive Sociology of Genres.”

Cognition, Literature and History, 2014

Sinding, Michael. "Toward a Cognitive Sociology of Genres." Cognition, Literature and History. Ed. Mark Bruhn and Donald Wehrs. New York: Routledge, 2014. 39-58. 2 2 Toward a Cognitive Sociology of Genres Michael Sinding Co-evolution of Form, Meaning, and Function I propose a perspective that puts a cognitive twist on sociological and historical views of epistolary genres. To do this, I need an account of how forms of conceptual meaning evolve, an account of the social and historical lives of genres, and, to splice them together, an account of genre evolution that considers conceptual and sociological dimensions together. For the first two I conscript aspects of Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier's theory of conceptual blending, and of discourse studies and new historicist criticism. Aspects of Mikhail Bakhtin's genre theory provide the splicing medium-specifically, his argument that complex "secondary" genres, including literary ones, are constituted by combinations and transformations of simpler ("primary") genres of everyday utterance, such as assertion, description, invitation, etc. I sketch a partial synthesis by considering an unusually clear example of Bakhtin's thesis: the process of genre evolution that leads from linguistic roots in oral conversation to generic branches in letter exchanges, collections and manuals, and the epistolary novel. This sketch should contribute to developing a cognitive sociology of genres by illustrating that this kind of integrative study is possible, coherent, and valuable. Samuel Richardson's career offers an illuminating example, because it encapsulates the generic trajectory from simple model letters to literary masterpieces like Clarissa (1747-48). He's recognized for his brilliant use of the form to present experience of passionate domestic dramas with remarkable immediacy and authenticity: what he called "writing to the moment." 3 Richardson's first novel Pamela (1740-41) grew from a brief exchange in his own letter-writing manual between a father and a daughter, concerning "her Master's Attempting her Virtue."