genre

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:42:46 -0500

>Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:16:50
>To: <ematusov who-is-at udel.edu>
>From: Judy Diamondstone <diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu>
>Subject: genre
>
>Hi, Eugene -
>I've received a couple back channel notes asking for
>clarification of a couple of the "reports" - Apologies
>for the abruptness and hastiness of them. I prefer
>the dialogic mode (especially when I'm busy!)
>
>I do think "genre" and "discourse" mean differently.
>First, Gee coined the distinction between
>little "d" discourse & big "D" Discourse - since little
>"d" dis. refers to any stretch of talk, I assume you're
>associating big "D" Dis. with genre.
>
>Jim meant by Discourses more than what at least I
>think of as 'genres' -- A Discourse is a way of life,
>a way of being, doing, caring, etc. Genre is more like
>a skeleton of some specific kind of discursive activity -
>a sequential structure, in one view, for
>getting something done.
>
>At the symposium, Peter Medway presented a kind of
>test case for genre -- the notebooks that architectural
>students use somewhat like journals. They're not
>required for courses; the contents are similar only
>in being similarly varied, with drawings, notes,
>reflections, sometimes but not always interrelated.
>They serve no explicit social purpose, they are not
>essential for participation in architectural school. But
>he decided in the end that the context in common & the
>similarities among the notebooks were enough to call them
>a genre.
>
>For me, "genre" simply poses that question: what is in-kind,
>why call it in-kind, how do we know that this activity is the
>KIND of activity it is, etc. Personally, I find the question
>less boggling the more time I spend doing the work of
>institutions, and I can appreciate the need to make such
>work less boggling for newcomers by answering questions about
>"genre."
>
>I see that the report on Anne Freadman's presentation,
>crossing the border between language and the body, didn't
>do what her presentation did for those who were present...
>I think it needs more translation, but I also think it
>is very important, related to the questions that repeatedly
>surface here about affect & CHAT. What did you think?
>
>Judy
>
>
>
>
>
>At 11:13 AM 1/26/98 -0800, you wrote:
>>Hi Judy and everybody--
>>
>>Thanks, Judy, for the report on the conference.
>>
>>I wonder if there is any difference between "genre" and "discourse"? Bakhtin
>>used the term "genre" but people now (e.g., Jim Gee) use "discourse". This
>>is not my area but I can't see difference. Does it exist?
>>
>>Eugene
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Judy Diamondstone [mailto:diamonju@rci.rutgers.edu]
>>> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 1998 1:30 PM
>>> To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
>>> Subject: Genre symposium - compilation #1: general impressions
>>>
>>>
>>> Mid-January, a number of xmca-ers attended the "2nd International
>>> Symposium on Genre" in Vancouver, BC. I solicited their notes &
>>> comments afterward to compile a report for xmca. This (and
>>> the next message or two) is it.
>>>
>>> Xmca-ers attending the conference were Chuck Bazerman, Carol
>>> Berkenkotter, myself, Patrick Diaz, Russell Hunt, Peter Medway,
>>> Anthony Pare, & David Russell. Those who were able to contribute
>>> notes/thoughts are cited below. The others I hope will add
>>> their own impressions where they see sig. omissions or differences
>>> with their own views.
>>>
>>> I've organized the report into a few "general impressions" and
>>> more specific "comments on presentations"
>>>
>>> General impressions --
>>>
>>>
>>> RUSS (the full text of Russ's comments is available at his
>>> website:
>>> http://www.stthomasu.ca/hunt/sfu/genrerfl.htm)
>>>
>>> For me the central idea -- the one that kept coming up as I listened to
>>> presentations and talked with people over lunches and dinners -- was
>>> introduced in the opening talk by Anne Freadman: uptake. This notion
>>> draws from, and invokes, speech act theory, a take on language which has
>>> been a good deal less salient in recent years than it once was.
>>> Freadman was clear that she's at least as concerned with the limitations
>>> of speech act theory as with its relevance to a concern with
>>> understanding the role of genre in our semiotic co-construction of
>>> social reality. But she also reminded all of us, right off the top,
>>> that we need to think of genre as a verb, rather than a noun, as an act
>>> rather than a thing, and that this way of looking at language was one of
>>> the principal contributions of Austin and Grice and Searle....
>>>
>>>
>>> CHUCK:
>>> Almost uniformly throughout the conference genre was perceived as
>>> a form of activity rather than a set of textual conventions. There was as
>>> well substantial attention to the ways genred utterances were embedded in
>>> activity systems. Both activity theory and structurationist theories were
>>> regularly invoked. In the discussion following Patrick Dias' plenary
>>> paper explicating activity theory, it became evident that there were a
>>> number of very knowledgable activity theorists in the audience. There was
>>> some discussion of the relationship of activity theory to other
>>> situational, utterance based approaches and whether there was a danger of
>>> some terms coming to dominate over other equally useful terms.
>>> ....
>>>
>>> ANTHONY:
>>>
>>> It's difficult to identify the chief impressions left on me by the
>>> Symposium. Like many contemporary conversations (xmca being a prime
>>> example, in my experience), there was plenty of cross-disciplinary
>>> exploration going on, with rhetoricians, literary critics, linguists,
>>> educators, and others seeking common ground, defining terms, elaborating
>>> conceptions. There were moments when "genre" seemed to mean everything,
>>> followed by moments when it lost meaning altogether. Is there such a
>>> thing as "genre theory," or is "genre" simply a helpful unit of
>>> analysis, a useful lens for researchers? How does it fit into AT? What
>>> are its educational applications/implications? Are rhetorical, literary,
>>> and linguistic notions of "genre" the same/different? Do they overlap?
>>> Interested xmcaers might want to check at
>>> http://www.sfu.ca/english/genre.htm for the Symposium program (and other
>>> stuff).
>>>
>>>
>>> Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
>>> Graduate School of Education
>>> Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
>>> 10 Seminary Place
>>> New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183