Genre

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Topic 9

• Genre

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Readings

• http//courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellibst/Readings.
  html
• Dubrow, Heather Genre. (PN45.5 Dub) London New
  York Methuen , 1982.
• Fowler, Alastair Kinds of literature an
  introduction to the theory of genres and modes
  Oxford Clarendon , 1982. (PN45.5 Fow)
• Jauss, Hans Robert. Toward an Aesthetic of
  Reception. Trans. by Timothy Bahti. Minneapolis
  U of Minnesota P, 1982. (PN98 Rrc.J)
• From Matejka, Ladislav and Krystyna Pomorska,
  eds. Readings in Russian Poetics. Cambridge,
  Mass. MIT P, 1971. (PN1047 Rea) chapters by
  Jakobson (82-7), Tynjanov (66-78) and Tynjanov
  Jakobson (79-81).

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WWW

• In relation to genre, you may also be interested
  to take a look at the following web pages
• Daniel Chandler's excellent An Introduction to
  Genre Theory
• Deborah Knight's 'Making Sense of Genre'

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Knowledge of Genre

• Whatever genre is, most of us appear to have a
  knowledge of what it is.
• Even young children are receptive to it many of
  them, for example, know what a tale or nursery
  rhyme is, even before they go to primary school.

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Genre in Literary Criticism Omnipresence of Genre

• One of the best ways to approach the study of
  genre is to begin by looking at how it is
  approached in literary criticism.
• Genre can be said to be present in all works of
  literature
• It can be said that every literary work displays
  elements of at least one genre.
• Many works in fact display elements of a few
  different genres.

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Unavoidability of Genres in Literary Criticism

• Genres are also unavoidable in literary
  criticism, as they guide the critic's evaluation
  and interpretation
• All literary criticism in fact makes some generic
  assumptions.

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Neglect of Genre in Recent Literary Criticism

• In spite of its importance, and the long
  tradition of generic analysis in literary
  criticism, there has been hostility,
  paradoxically, to the analysis of genres in
  recent literary criticism

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Genres Can Be Found in All Texts

• Genre however, need not be literary.
• By extending what we have mentioned above in
  relation to literary genres, we can say that
  genre can be said to be present not only in all
  literary genres, but also in all texts, and that
  every text displays elements of at least one
  genre.

9
Genres, Linguistic Features Schemas

• As the relationship of genre to linguistic
  features may be peripheral -- restricted, for
  example, to the features of poetry -- it may be
  more fruitful to view it as a cognitive
  construct more specifically, in schematic terms.

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Schemas Multiples Generic Classifications

• Thinking of genre in schematic terms may help
  solve the problem of works which display elements
  of more than one genre this happens when readers
  impose different generic schemas on the text.

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Schematic Approach Further Advantages

• Thinking of it in schematic terms may also
  prevent us from
• thinking of genre as a closed concept, and
• thinking of its relationship to texts as fixed.

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Synchrony Diachrony
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The Three Universal Genres in Literary Criticism

• The terms used
• the lyric,
• the epic, and
• drama
• Universals are also known as
• Ultimates, or
• Natural Forms.

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Modern Genres

• In modern times, the three ultimates are often
  substituted with
• poetry,
• the novel and
• drama.

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Genres Other Classifications

• These are of course the main classifications for
  written literature.
• There are different classifications for film, as
  we will see in a later lecture.
• There are some micro-genres, such as tragedy,
  which, depending on the work, can be further
  classified, recursively, under the three
  universals indicated above.

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Modes and Kinds

• A kind refers to the external features of the
  genre eg. the length of the work, number of
  words, the medium used (spoken / written), the
  audience, readership or number of interactants
  involved or, in more literary terms, the number
  of acts, plot structure, rhyme or metrical
  pattern and so on.
• A mode however, refers to the internal features
  of the genre, such as theme, mood and atmosphere.

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Modes and Kinds Table
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Automatization of Genres

• After a reader becomes familiar with a genre, the
  genre becomes automatized for him or her. Genres
  of popular literature are automatized for many
  readers, as they can more or less automatically
  predict what is going to happen in a particular
  popular work.

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The Dominant and Automatization

• If a genre becomes automatized for a group of
  readers, the genre becomes dominant for them.
  This may in turn make the genre dominant in a
  particular period in history.

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How a Mode May Become a Kind

• Through the process of the dominant being created
  via automatization, a generic mode may become a
  kind i.e. certain features are fixed (or
  externalised) for the genre for example, plot
  structure, character types (especially with
  regard to popular fiction), rhyme and metrical
  patterns (for example, in ballads) etc.

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Generic Evolution Tynjanov

• One of the interesting studies on generic
  evolution is Yurii Tynjanov's On Literary
  Evolution.
• In his work, Tynjanov discusses how the
  syn-function, which refers to features existing
  within the system of the text, is determined by
  the auto-function, which refers to features
  existing outside the system.

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Genres in Real Time

• What Is Meant by real time conception of genre?
• The human mind, with its repertoire of generic
  schemas, can be described as being engaged in the
  process of generic anticipation, modification and
  replacement in relation to the reading of a text.
  

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Horizon of Expectations

• In the initial stage of reading, a set of generic
  schemas, followed by a more appropriate schema
  or set of schemas, are successively foregrounded.
   
• We can relate this process to what Jauss has
  described as the horizon of expectations during
  reading.

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Modification of Horizon of Expectations

• Failure to understand the text according to the
  schema the reader has imposed on it may result in
  a modification or change of the reader's horizon
  of expectations, which may in turn mean either a
  change or modification of the appropriate generic
  schema or schemas used for reading the text.  

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Implication of Real Time Conception of Genre

• Viewing genres in real time thus means that
  generic understanding does not end when one has
  finished reading the text.
• To Karl Viëtor (cited in Jauss), generic
  understanding has no goal at all it will not
  come to rest in a fulfillment, but rather will be
  present in a continually renewed realization.

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THE COCK AND THE PEARL
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THE WOLF AND THE LAMB
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End of Lecture