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This article is about the concept of genres. For a list of genres, seeList of genres.For genre studies or genre theory, seeGenre studies.For other uses, seeGenre (disambiguation).
See also:Literary genre,Film genre,Music genre,andComics genre

Genre(Frenchfor 'kind, sort')[1]is any style or form ofcommunicationin any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time.[2]In popular usage, it normally describes acategoryofliterature,music,or other forms of art or entertainment, based on some set of stylistic criteria.[3]Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid, strictly adhered-to guidelines, while others may show great flexibility. The proper use of a specific genre is important for important for a successful transfer of information (media-adequacy).[4]

Critical discussion of genre perhaps began with a classification system forancient Greek literature,as set out inAristotle'sPoetics.[5]For Aristotle,poetry(odes,epics,etc.),prose,andperformanceeach had specific features that supported appropriate content of each genre. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, for example, and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best.

Genres proliferate and develop beyond Aristotle's classifications— in response to changes in audiences and creators.[6]Genre has become a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictability through artistic expression. Given that art is often a response to a social state, in that people write, paint, sing, dance, and otherwise produce art about what they know about, the use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings.

Visual arts

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Agenre painting,The Peasant Dance,c. 1568,byPieter Brueghel the Elder

The termgenreis much used in the history and criticism of visual art, but inart historyhas meanings that overlap rather confusingly.Genre paintingis a term for paintings where the main subject features human figures to whom no specific identity attaches – in other words, figures are not portraits, characters from a story, or allegorical personifications. They usually deal with subjects drawn from "everyday life". These are distinguished fromstaffage:incidental figures in what is primarily alandscapeor architectural painting. "Genre" is also be used to refer to specialized types of art such asstill-life,landscapes,marine paintingsand animal paintings, or groups of artworks with other particular features in terms of subject-matter, style oriconography.

The concept of the "hierarchy of genres"was a powerful one in artistic theory, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with theAcadémie françaisewhich held a central role inacademic art.The genres, which were mainly applied to painting, in hierarchical order are:

The hierarchy was based on a distinction between art that made an intellectual effort to "render visible the universal essence of things" (imitarein Italian) and that which merely consisted of "mechanical copying of particular appearances" (ritrarre).[7]Idealismwas privileged overrealismin line withRenaissance Neo-Platonistphilosophy.

Literature

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Literature
Oral literature
Major written forms
Long prose fiction
Short prose fiction
Prose genres
Fiction
Non-fiction
Poetry genres
Narrative
Lyric
Lists
Dramatic genres
History
Lists and outlines
Theoryandcriticism
Literature portal
Main articles:Literary genreandList of writing genres

A literarygenreis a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined byliterary technique,tone,content,or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult,young adult,orchildren's.They also must not be confused with format, such asgraphic novelor picture book. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups.[8][9]

The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order)epic,tragedy,[10]comedy,novel,andshort story.They can all be in the genresproseorpoetry,which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre such assatiremight appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the generalcultural movementof thehistorical periodin which they were composed. Inpopular fiction,which is especially divided by genres,genre fictionis the more usual term.

Inliterature,genre has been known as an intangibletaxonomy.This taxonomy implies a concept of containment or that an idea will be stable forever. The earliest recorded systems of genre inWestern historycan be traced back to Plato and Aristotle.Gérard Genette,a French literary theorist and author ofThe Architext,describes Plato as creating three Imitational genres: dramatic dialogue, pure narrative, andepic(a mixture of dialogue and narrative).Lyric poetry,the fourth and final type ofGreek literature,was excluded by Plato as a non-mimetic mode. Aristotle later revised Plato's system by eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode and distinguishing by two additional criteria: the object to be imitated, as objects could be either superior or inferior, and the medium of presentation such as words, gestures or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode, object, and medium dialogue,epic(superior-mixed narrative),comedy(inferior-dramatic dialogue), andparody(inferior-mixed narrative).

Genette continues by explaining the later integration of lyric poetry into the classical system during theromantic period,replacing the now removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry, once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third leg of a new tripartite system: lyrical, epical, and dramatic dialogue. This system, which came to "dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism (and therefore well beyond)…" (38), has seen numerous attempts at expansion or revision. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing scope and complexity.

Genette reflects upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to…those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse" (74). Taxonomy allows for a structured classification system of genre, as opposed to a more contemporary rhetorical model of genre.

Film

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Main article:Film genre

The basic genres of film can be regarded as drama, in thefeature filmand mostcartoons,anddocumentary.Most dramatic feature films, especially fromHollywoodfall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as theWestern,war film,horror film,romantic comedy film,musical,crime film,and many others. Many of these genres have a number of subgenres, for example by setting or subject, or a distinctive national style, for example in the IndianBollywoodmusical.

Music

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Main article:Music genre

Amusic genreis a conventional category that identifies pieces ofmusicas belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.[11]It is to be distinguished frommusical formandmusical style,although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably.[citation needed]There are numerous genres in Westernclassical musicandpopular music,as well asmusical theatreand the music of non-Western cultures. The term is now perhaps over-used to describe relatively small differences in musical style in modernrock music,that also may reflect sociological differences in their audiences.[citation needed]Timothy Laurie suggests that in the context of rock and pop music studies, the "appeal of genre criticism is that it makes narratives out of musical worlds that often seem to lack them".[12]

Music can be divided into different genres in several ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial, and some genres may overlap. There are several academic approaches to genres. In his bookForm in Tonal Music,Douglass M. Green listsmadrigal,motet,canzona,ricercar,and dance as examples of genres from theRenaissanceperiod. According to Green, "Beethoven'sOp. 61and Mendelssohn'sOp. 64are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart'sRondo for Piano, K. 511,and theAgnus Deifrom hisMass, K. 317are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form. "[13]Some, likePeter van der Merwe,treat the termsgenreandstyleas the same, saying thatgenreshould be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language".[14]

Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state thatgenreandstyleare two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres.[15]A music genre or subgenre may be defined by themusical techniques,the styles, the context, and content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres.

Several music scholars have criticized the priority accorded to genre-based communities and listening practices. For example, Laurie argues that "music genres do not belong to isolated, self-sufficient communities. People constantly move between environments where diverse forms of music are heard, advertised and accessorised with distinctive iconographies, narratives and celebrity identities that also touch on non-musical worlds."[12]

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The concept of genre is often applied, sometimes rather loosely, to other media with an artistic element, such asvideo game genres.Genre, and numerous minutely divided subgenres, affect popular culture very significantly, not least as they are used to classify it for publicity purposes. The vastly increased output of popular culture in the age of electronic media encourages dividing cultural products by genre to simplify the search for products by consumers, a trend the Internet has only intensified.

Linguistics

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Inphilosophy of language,genre figures prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholarMikhail Bakhtin.Bakhtin's basic observations were of "speech genres" (the idea ofheteroglossia), modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as "formal letter" and "grocery list", or "university lecture" and "personal anecdote" ). In this sense, genres are socially specified: recognized and defined (often informally) by a particular culture or community. The work ofGeorg Lukácsalso touches on the nature ofliterary genres,appearing separately but around the same time (1920s–1930s) as Bakhtin.Norman Faircloughhas a similar concept of genre that emphasizes the social context of the text: Genres are "different ways of (inter)acting discoursally" (Fairclough, 2003: 26).

A text's genre may be determined by its:

  1. Linguistic function.
  2. Formal traits.
  3. Textual organization.
  4. Relation of communicative situation to formal and organizational traits of the text (Charaudeau and Maingueneau, 2002:278–280).

Rhetoric

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In the field ofrhetoric,genre theorists usually understand genres as types of actions rather than types or forms of texts.[16]On this perspective, texts are channels through which genres are enacted. Carolyn Miller's[17]work has been especially important for this perspective. Drawing onLloyd Bitzer's concept of rhetorical situation,[18]Miller reasons that recurring rhetorical problems tend to elicit recurring responses; drawing onAlfred Schütz,[19]she reasons that these recurring responses become "typified" – that is, socially constructed as recognizable types. Miller argues that these "typified rhetorical actions" (p. 151) are properly understood as genres.

Building off of Miller,Charles Bazermanand Clay Spinuzzi have argued that genres understood as actions derive their meaning from other genres – that is, other actions. Bazerman therefore proposes that we analyze genres in terms of "genre systems",[20]while Spinuzzi prefers the closely related concept of "genre ecologies".[21]Reiff and Bawarshi define genre analysis as a critical reading of people's patterns of communication in different situations.[16]

This tradition has had implications for the teaching of writing in American colleges and universities. Combining rhetorical genre theory withactivity theory,David Russell has proposed that standard English composition courses are ill-suited to teach the genres that students will write in other contexts across the university and beyond.[22]Elizabeth Wardle contends that standard composition courses do teach genres, but that these are inauthentic "mutt genres" that are often of little use outside composition courses.[23]

Genre is effective as a tool in rhetoric because it allows a speaker to set the context for a rhetorical discussion. Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi suggest that rhetorical genres may be assigned based on careful analysis of the subject matter and consideration of the audience.[24]

Genre is related to Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory ofFamily resemblancein which he describes how genres act like a family tree, where members of a family are related, but not exact copies of one another.[25]

History

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This concept of genre originated from the classification systems created byPlato.Plato dividedliteratureinto the three classic genres accepted inAncient Greece:poetry,drama,andprose.Poetryis further subdivided intoepic,lyric,anddrama.The divisions are recognized as being set byAristotleandPlato;however, they were not the only ones. Many genre theorists added to these accepted forms ofpoetry.

Classical and Romance genre theory

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The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back toPlatoandAristotle.Gérard Genetteexplains his interpretation of the history of genre in "The Architext". He described Plato as the creator of three imitational, mimetic genres distinguished by mode of imitation rather than content. These three imitational genres include dramatic dialogue, thedrama;pure narrative, thedithyramb;and a mixture of the two, theepic.Plato excludedlyric poetryas a non-mimetic, imitational mode. Genette further discussed how Aristotle revised Plato's system by first eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode. He then uses two additional criteria to distinguish the system. The first of the criteria is the object to be imitated, whether superior or inferior. The second criterion is the medium of presentation: words, gestures, or verse. Essentially, the three categories ofmode,object,andmediumcan be visualized along an XYZ axis. Excluding the criteria of medium, Aristotle's system distinguished four types of classical genres:tragedy,epic,comedy,andparody.

Genette explained the integration of lyric poetry into the classical system by replacing the removed pure narrative mode.Lyric poetry,once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third "Architext", a term coined by Gennette, of a new long-enduring tripartite system: lyrical; epical, the mixed narrative; and dramatic, the dialogue. This new system that came to "dominate all the literary theory ofGerman romanticism"(Genette 38) has seen numerous attempts at expansion and revision. Such attempts includeFriedrich Schlegel's triad of subjective form, the lyric; objective form, the dramatic; and subjective-objective form, the epic. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing complexity. Gennette reflected upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to most of those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse".

Audiences

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Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individual's understanding of a genre.

Genre creates an expectation in that expectation is met or not. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such asmagazinesand websites. Inversely, audiences may call out for change in an antecedent genre and create an entirely new genre.

The term may be used in categorizingweb pages,like "news page" and "fan page", with both very different layout, audience, and intention (Rosso, 2008). Some search engines likeVivísimotry to group found web pages into automated categories in an attempt to show various genres the search hits might fit.

Subgenre

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A subgenre is asubordinatewithin a genre,[26][27]Two stories being the same genre can still sometimes differ in subgenre. For example, if afantasystory has darker and more frightening elements of fantasy, it would belong in the subgenre ofdark fantasy;whereas another fantasy story that featuresmagic swordsandwizardswould belong to the subgenre ofsword and sorcery.

Microgenre

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Main article:Microgenre

Amicrogenreis a highly specialized, narrow classification of a cultural practice. The term has come into usage in the 21st century, and most commonly refers to music.[28]It is also associated with the hyper-specific categories used in recommendations for television shows and movies on digital streaming platforms such asNetflix,and is sometimes used more broadly by scholars analyzing niche forms in other periods and other media.[29]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^"genre".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.Retrieved2022-09-22.
  2. ^Devitt, Amy J. (2015), Heilker, Paul; Vandenberg, Peter (eds.),"Genre",Keywords in Writing Studies,Utah State University Press, pp. 82–87,doi:10.7330/9780874219746.c017,ISBN978-0-87421-974-6,archivedfrom the original on 2020-11-30,retrieved2021-02-04
  3. ^Miller, Carolyn R. (1984). ""Genre as Social Action"".Quarterly Journal of Speech.70(2): 151–167.doi:10.1080/00335638409383686.
  4. ^Giessen, Hans W (2015). "Media-Based Learning Methodology: Stories, Games, and Emotions". In Ally, Mohamed; Khan, Badrul H. (eds.). International Handbook of E-Learning Volume 2: Implementation and Case Studies. Routledge, 43-54.
  5. ^Aristotle (2000), Butcher, S. H. (ed.),Poetics,Internet Classics Archive,archivedfrom the original on 2014-12-29,retrieved2021-04-27
  6. ^Todorov, Tzvetan (1976), ""The Origins of Genre"",New Literary History,8(1): 159–170,doi:10.2307/468619,JSTOR468619
  7. ^Laura L.,The Drama of the Portrait: Theater and Visual Culture in Early Modern Spain,p. 36, Penn State Press, 2008,ISBN0-271-03304-5,ISBN978-0-271-03304-4,Google books
  8. ^Todorov, Tzvetan; Howard, Richard (1976). "The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre".The Slavic and East European Journal.20(2): 186–189.doi:10.2307/305826.JSTOR305826.
  9. ^Pavel, Thomas (2003). "Literary Genres as Norms and Good Habits".New Literary History.34(2).The Johns Hopkins University Press:201–210.doi:10.1353/nlh.2003.0021.JSTOR20057776.S2CID144429849.
  10. ^Bakhtin 1983, p. 3.
  11. ^Samson, Jim."Genre".Grove Music Online.Retrieved2023-01-25.
  12. ^abLaurie, Timothy (2014)."Music Genre as Method".Cultural Studies Review.20(2).doi:10.5130/csr.v20i2.4149.
  13. ^Green, Douglass M. (1965).Form in Tonal Music.Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. p. 1.ISBN0-03-020286-8.
  14. ^van der Merwe, Peter(1989).Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music.Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.3.ISBN0-19-316121-4.
  15. ^Moore, Allan F. "Categorical Conventions in Music Discourse: Style and Genre"Archived2018-10-01 at theWayback Machine.Music & Letters,Vol. 82, No. 3 (Aug. 2001), pp. 432–442.
  16. ^abAnis S. Bawarshi; Mary Jo Reiff (2010). "5. Genre in Rhetorical and Sociological Traditions, 6. Rhetorical Genre Studies".Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy.Parlor Press.ISBN9781602351738.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-06-11.Retrieved2023-06-11.
  17. ^Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(2), 151–167.
  18. ^Bitzer, L. F. (1968). The Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1(1), 1–14.
  19. ^Schutz, A., & Luckmann, T. (1973). The Structures of the Life-World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
  20. ^Bazerman, C. (1994). Systems of Genre and the Enactment of Social Intentions. In Genre and the New Rhetoric (pp. 79–101). London/Bristol: Taylor & Francis.
  21. ^Spinuzzi, C., & Zachry, M. (2000). Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation. ACM Journal of Computer Documentation, 24(3), 169–181.
  22. ^Russell, D. R. (1995). Activity theory and its implications for writing instruction. In J. Petraglia (Ed.), Reconceiving writing, rethinking writing instruction (pp. 51–78). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  23. ^Wardle, E. (2009). "Mutt Genres" and the Goal of FYC: Can we Help Students Write the Genres of the University? College Composition and Communication, 60(4), 765–789.
  24. ^Cope, Emily; Ringer, Jeffery M. (2015).Rhetorical Choices: Analyzing and Writing Arguments.Pearson. pp. 87–98.ISBN9781269885805.
  25. ^Wittgenstein, Ludwig (2001).Philosophical Investigations: The German Text, with a Revised English Translation.Blackwell. p. 23.ISBN9780631231592.
  26. ^"subgenre".dictionary.com.
  27. ^"Subgenre".The Free Dictionary.Farlex.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-11-08.Retrieved2015-07-09.
  28. ^Patrick D. McDermott; Emilie Friedlander (October 8, 2015)."A Recent History of Microgenres".The FADER.Illustration by Hisashi Okawa.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-04-04.Retrieved2020-02-21.
  29. ^O'Donnell, Molly C.; Stevens, Anne H., eds. (2020).The microgenre: a quick look at small culture.New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-1-5013-4584-5.OCLC1139150914.

Sources

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  • Aristotle(2000).Poetics.Translated by Butcher, S. H. Cambridge, MA: The Internet Classics Archive.Archivedfrom the original on 2014-12-29.Retrieved2021-04-27.
  • Bakhtin, Mikhail M.(1983)."Epic and Novel".In Holquist, Michael (ed.).The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.ISBN0-292-71527-7.
  • Charaudeau, P.; Maingueneau, D. and Adam, J.Dictionnaire d'analyse du discours.Seuil, 2002.
  • Devitt, Amy J. "A Theory of Genre".Writing Genres.Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004. 1–32.
  • Fairclough, Norman.Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research.Routledge, 2003.
  • Genette, Gérard.The Architext: An Introduction.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. [1979]
  • Jamieson, Kathleen M. "Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint".Quarterly Journal of Speech61 (1975): 406–415.
  • Killoran, John B. "The Gnome In The Front Yard and Other Public Figurations: Genres of Self-Presentation on Personal Home Pages". Biography 26.1 (2003): 66–83.
  • LaCapra, Dominick. "History and Genre: Comment".New Literary History17.2 (1986): 219–221.
  • Miller, Carolyn. "Genre as Social Action".Quarterly Journal of Speech.70 (1984): 151–67.
  • Rosso, Mark. "User-based Identification of Web Genres".Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology59 (2008): 1053–1072.
  • Todorov, Tzvetan. "The Origins of Genre".New Literary History8.1 (1976): 159-170.

Further reading

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  • Pare, Anthony. "Genre and Identity".The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre: Strategies for Stability and Change.Eds. Richard M. Coe, Lorelei Lingard, and Tatiana Teslenko. Creskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2002.ISBN978-1572733848.
  • Sullivan, Ceri (2007) "Disposable elements? Indications of genre in early modern titles",Modern Language Review102.3, pp. 641–653.
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