Among the following interesting comments in your note on genre, the following
struck me particularly, even though I had seen it before in an earlier
note:
* their genres (the forms of symbolic material that fit into their typified
activities),
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I am wondering about the polymorphous nature of the term "forms
of symbolic material" in relation to this defintion of genre.
What does one call the different "kinds of form" and how do we
identify them? I am thinking here of another term, trope. Isn't
a trop a kind of form of symbolic material too?
I am wondering, too, how genre and voice are related, as well
as "social language" which Jim Wertsch has adopted from Bakhtin
as another kind of form.
These questions may be too complicated to answer in this forum,
but if you have someplace where these issues are dealt with, I
would appreciate a ref.
mike