Genre

English 289University of Cincinnati

C. LaVecchia

What is genre?

The dictionary would tell you that genres are types, kinds, and forms.

This presentation will give you an overview of genre theory in rhetoric and composition.

Typically, when we think of “genres,” we think of things like . . . .

The Old View: Forms, Containers

Defined by formal characteristics

Viewed as a classification system

While genres do have formal patterns and characteristics, this doesn’t tell the full story…

From Product to Process: Changing Views on Genre

Genre theory has moved “from genre as defined by literary critics or rhetoricians to genre as defined by its

users” (Devitt 3).

We’re not just interested in how they look, but in how they’re used.

Genre as Social and Rhetorical Action

Genres shape our interactions with others

They organize our ways of being in our societies and cultures.

Genres organize us into roles and dictate what is possible in a given situation

Genres are sites for action

More on Social Action

Genre classifications/categories are multiple and depend on the emphasis/purpose/beliefs of the classifier

Genres are responses to recurring situations and contexts

Example: Greeting Cards

Recognizable response to situation.

Sanction/make official holidays like “bosses day” and “secretaries day.”

Multiple and overlapping subgenres.

Dictate (and make possible) social relations possible (e.g., birthday card “from wife”).

More Examples

Grocery list Forms at doctor’s

office Syllabus

All of these examples are typified responses to recurring situations

Major Thinkers

Carolyn Miller: genre as typified social action associated with a recurring situation.

Amy Devitt: Genres have reciprocal relationships with context and betray cultural patterns and values.

Anis Bawarshi: “Writing takes place. It takes place socially and rhetorically. To write is to position oneself within genres—to assume and enact certain situated commitments, identities, relations, and practices” (14).

ConclusionGenres are recognizable texts used in social contexts, which organize

and shape our relationships with each other and to the world.