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Literary and Cultural Studies (Subject) / Genre (Lesson)
- Taxonomy 1. Classification, esp. in relation to its general laws of principles, that depart of science which consists in or relates to classification, esp. the systematic classification of living organisms. 2. (with a and plural) a classification of anything
- Aristotle, History of Animals -Classification by types according to similarities; in hierarchical order (later commentators: Great Chain of Being) -Binomial ('two names'): definition according to genus + difference;i.e. attribute to a family and then show differences
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1953) "We see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing: sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail"→ family of resemblances loose concept of genre individual texts within a genre rarely have all of the characteristic features of the genre "Better than having clear boundaries, essential components, and shared and uniform properties, classes defined by prototypes have a common core and then fade into fuziness at the edges" (Fow)
- Two major Traditions in Western Genre Theory: 1.Listings of Genres: -e.g. Quintilian (35-96 A.D.): epic, tragedy, Old Comedy, New Comedy, elegy, iambic, satire, lyric poetry 2. Systems of Genres derived from Aristotle - Lyric-Epic-Dramatic →Renaissance Division of Genres
- The function of genre and literary period Period refers to diachronic dimension (literary history) but function introduces synchronic perspective in literary history Genre refers to synchronic dimension (classification of literature) but function introduces diachronic perspective in literary classification →Genre as "the meeting place between general poetics and event-based literary history" →An adequate description of genre will involve a fusion of these two perspectives
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