a cross-disciplinary approach to genre analysis

1
a cross-disciplinary approach to genre analysis

• integrating concepts from linguistics, literary
  theory, film theory and rhetoric studies
• S

2

• Susan GerofskyDept. of Curriculum and
  PedagogyUniversity of British Columbialtsusan.ger
  ofsky_at_ubc.cagt

3
Cross-disciplinarity genre

• Genre analysis has been developed across the
  disciplines of linguistics, literary theory,
  rhetoric studies, film studies, folklore
  studies...and now education
• I will present an argument for the explanatory
  power of an interdisciplinary take on genre for
  (mathematics) education, which goes beyond a
  systemic-functional linguistics approach.

4
work on genre in mathematics education

• Pimm, Beatty Moss (2007) on the written genre
  in an online mathematical forum Morgan (1998)
  on genre in British school mathematical
  investigationsNardi Iannone (2005) on genre
  in undergraduate mathematicsBouwer (2008) on
  mathematics teacher talkBraathe (2008) on genre
  in student teachers mathematics. Solomon
  ONeill (1998) Marks Mousely (1990) Ernest
  (1999) Artemeva, Fox Paré on chalk and talk
  undergraduate mathematics lectures as
  genreGerofsky genre studies of word problems,
  calculus lectures, the archaeology of graphing,
  worksheets

5
limitations of sfl approach to genre

• The SFL approach takes into account conscious
  communicative intentionality, while much of what
  characterizes genre is unconscious -- for
  example, see Jamiesons (1978) work on the
  history of genre and unintended effects.
• This style of analysis tends to conflate purpose
  or function, register and genre and thus can miss
  much of what is potentially interesting about a
  genre -- its history, echoes and cultural
  effects, its poetics.

6
avoiding a too-linear, structuralist approach

• It is important to acknowledge that not
  everything of importance can be captured through
  oppositions or minimal pairs
• the tyranny of the grid, of taxonomies, and of
  solely linear and intentional approaches make it
  impossible to see emergent, complex, fractal and
  complicit patterns in cultural phenomena

7
a cross-disciplinary genre analysis in education
offers

• an approach to ontological questions about
  cultural forms asking the what questions what
  is this form or genre, and what are its history
  and resonances?
• Educators can then know better what intentions
  can and cannot (constitutionally) be enacted
  through use of a genre in pedagogy...
• ...and can learn what intended and unintended
  messages are carried by the generic medium in
  itself.

8
Genre as cultural object useful
cross-disciplinary concepts

• Bakhtin (literary theory) genre characterized by
  addressivity and chronotope.
• Tudor (film theory) how to break through the
  empiricist dilemma in identifying genres?
• Sobchak (film theory) genre/ generic
  utterances made, not in imitation of life, but
  of other items within the genre.
• Schatz (film theory) genre a tacit contract
  between film makers intentions and audiences
  cultural expectations.

9
Genre as cultural object (continued)

• Neale (film theory) genres as relational process
  incorporating both repetition (recognition) and
  innovation (surprise).
• Altman (film theory) consideration of genre
  history shows genres are not fixed Platonic
  categories.
• Jamieson (rhetoric) genre history/ archaeology
  shows that the intentions of antecedent genres
  continues to be carried (unwittingly) by new
  genres.

10
(continued...)

• Miller (rhetoric) What we learn when we learn a
  genre is not just a pattern of forms or even a
  method of achieving our own ends. We learn, more
  importantly, what ends we may have.
• Colie (rhetoric) Genres as schemata that shape
  our always-mediated expectations of the world.

11
(and more...)

• Todorov (literary theory) Genres are precisely
  those relay-points by which the work assumes a
  relation with the universe of literature.
• Frye (literary theory) Genres useful not so
  much to classify as to clarifybringing out a
  large number of relationships that would not be
  noticed otherwise.

12
So we can say that genres

• are universally recognized within a culture
  (though often ignored)
• are nearly all-pervasive and self-referencing,
• carry historically encoded intentions and
  meanings a speaker/writer/maker is generally
  unaware of
• serve to format both the means and the intentions
  of a society.

13
genres are not only linguistic, but often
multimodal

• For exampleonline genres (blogs, wikis, memes
  like LOLCATS)genres in film, television and
  other media educational genres (lectures,
  investigations, graphs, worksheets)

14
educators need a broader cross-disciplinary
approach to genre

• to go beyond static taxonomies to an
  understanding of dynamic, emergent cultural
  phenomena
• to recognize unconscious patterning as well as
  conscious intentionality in genre
• to be attentive to historical and intergeneric
  resonances/ echoes
• to acknowledge a blurring of the distinction
  between performer and audience, as audiences
  are complicit in the development of genres