Points of Praxis

My Blog Reflects on Visual Rhetorical Theory and Disability Rhetoric and their Connections to Classical and Contemporary Rhetorical Theory

Genre and the New Rhetoric

Kenneth Bruffee, social construction and genre theory.

"knowledge is something that is socially constructed in response to communal needs, goals, and contexts."  "the composing process of texts traditionally regarded as containers of knowledge comes to be seen, far more dynamically, as part of the social process by which that knowledge, 'the world, reality, and facts' are made." Freedman and Medway, eds.

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"Genre as Social Action," Carolyn Miller

Criticisms of genre theory:  reductionism, rules, formalism, tiresome and useless taxonomies. 

"Genre" based on the action it is used to accomplish.  The social action.  Connections b/t genre and recurrent situations.  Represents typified rhetorical action.   Classification based on similarity of action.  Rhetorical analysis based on form (syntactics), substance (semantics), and rhetorical act discourse performs (pragmatics). [back to Kinneavy here]   Involves situation and motive and action.  [reminded of Burke here.  Miller also mentions these as Burke's terms here.]  Recognizable forms bound by internal dynamic (according to Jamieson and Campbell).  It's the fusion of all three within a rhetorical situation.  Not just the isolation of one. 

Relationship b/t situation and discourse.  [back to Bitzer here]

connections b/t genre theory and Aristotle:  deliberative, epideictic, forensic discourses.  Have elements common of each (exhortation and dissuasion, accusation and defense, and praise or blame).   Aims (expedience, justice, honor).  Appropriate forms (time, tense, proofs, style).  [connections to Kinneavy here also]

relevance to rhetorical practice.  social action occurs when intention meets effect.

"motives are found within or created by situations and that situations are perceived in terms of motives."

genre based in rhetorical practice, open structure, situated actions.

difference b/t Bitzer and Burke:  motive and exigence.  Motive based on human action.  Exigence based on reaction.

Genres based on recurrent rhetorical situations.   Distinguishes b/t fundamental and perceptual screen.   Exigence is a form of social knowledge.  Exigence is to have a social motive.  Motives--linguistic products. Trying not to create taxonomies.    Genre based in typified rhetorical action.   Combination of situation and social context--situation arises within a social context.   Genre is the convergence of private intentions and social exigencies.

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"Anyone for Tennis!" Anne Freadman

Relates the metaphor/simile/allegory of tennis to genre theory.  Learn the rules of genres, output is text.  However, just as in the game, players can plan what they are going to do, in the situation of the game, things might not go exactly according to plan.  Likewise in genres and speech acts.  Just because the rules are planned as typified social action, doesn't mean that the text will carry on exactly as planned.  "Recipes are a genre, but genres are not recipes."

Freadman connects genres to encyclopedias much like Eco does.

Learning discourse and genres much like apprenticeship.  Learning to write means being around writers.  Means practicing writing.  Means knowledge instructor helping students to learn through trial and error.   Genre acquisition can be socially empowering.

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"Systems of Genres and the Enactment of Social Intentions," Charles Bazerman

Genres are levers on complicated and dynamic machines that contribute to the consequential social motive sought. 

"A genre exists only in the recognitions and attributions of the users."  Genres don't exist in vacuum w/out social use.

"over a period of time, individuals perceive homologies in circumstances that encourage them to see these as occasions for similar kinds of utterances.  These typified utterances, often developing standardized formal features, appear as ready solutions to similar appearing problems.  Eventually the genres sediment into forms so expected that readers are surprised or even uncooperative if a standard perception of the situation is not met by an utterance of the expected form."

Can't always control audiences' reaction.  Part of social action.

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"Observing Genres in Action:  Towards a Research Methodology," Anthony Pare and Graham Smart

Regularities in textual features.  regularities in social roles.  regularities in composing process.  regularities in reading practices. 

"Genre and the Pragmatic Concept of Background Knowledge," Janet Giltrow

Background knowledge and experience w/ genres important to the construction of them.

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Genre Theory, John Swales

genre defined as "common communicative purposes" with purposes that in specific environments give rise to specific features.  Also important:  discourse community. 

genre based on 1. communicative events, 2. communicative purposes, 3. genres of prototypicality, 4. nomenclature, 5.

"Discourse communities are soicorhetorical networks that form in order to work towards sets of common goals."

"genres are the properties of the discourse communities." genre identity based on communicative purpose.

Features of discourse communities:  1. common public goals. 2. mechanisms of intercommunication. 3. participatory mechanisms for providing feedback and information. 4. one of more genres utilized by the group to further its public goals 5. specific lexicon. 6. members of expertise.

posted by: rgregory at 01:07 | link | comments |

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