Genre as an Interpretive Frame of Reference: Image credit: Victor GAD Marija Dalbello Genre as an Interpretive Frame of Reference: Textual Communities Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello

Communities of Readers: Print/Electronic ___________________________________________ Reading environments primarily focused on print (most reading practices found there) Print / Electronic environment considered as adjoining reading space in which social interactions prompted by print-based reading are extended (fan literary production; e-books) Electronic texts (hypertext novel; collaborative writing)

genre tied to the study of the complex nature of literacy Literacy and Genre Study ______________________________________________ genre tied to the study of the complex nature of literacy Literacy (physical embodiments of text + totality of social relations within which texts reside) Genre narrows the notion of literacy (localizing specific texts within historical communities)

Genre Analysis _______________________________________ Reading as interpretation of individual texts Relating individual texts to their genres: recognizing structure and formulas Relating genres to society and culture in general

Outline ________________________________________ Defining Elements in the Study of Genre How to Study Genre as a Form of Social Interaction Current Approaches to the Study of Genre Programmatic Precepts for the Study of Genre

Defining Elements in the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Defining Elements in the Study of Genre by the fact that genre is a social form and therefore: is a means of socialization of communities and individuals in a particular type of text and literacy and exists only in the interpretive space constructed by the real readers

Defining Elements in the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Defining Elements in the Study of Genre by the fact that genre is a symbolic space and therefore: may exist in different manifestations of visible language (mediated in print, electronic format)

Defining Elements in the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Defining Elements in the Study of Genre by the fact that genre is a historical and political construct and therefore: reflects transformations over time in terms of which groups choose this genre or abandon it (self-organizing nature of genre reading) reflects the power relations of groups to mainstream values

Defining Elements in the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Defining Elements in the Study of Genre For all these reasons: genre as social force (organizing individuals) genre as symbolic space (language + visible form) genre as impact of historical and political context the study of genre is in fact a study of textual communities and their interactions and interpretive behaviors in the process of reading audience research based on genre exemplified by Janice Radway’s study of the romance readers comes closest to a model for the study of genre fiction

Genres, Interpretive Communities, and Social Relevance of Texts ________________________________________ Genres, Interpretive Communities, and Social Relevance of Texts “Meaning of texts is constructed from textual materials by a reader who operates not alone and subjectively but according to assumptions and strategies that she or he has adopted by virtue of prior participation in specific interpretive community.” (Radway 1984, 243)

_________________________________________ How to design a study in which genre is considered to express social interaction?

Study of Genre as Form of Social Interaction ________________________________________ Study of Genre as Form of Social Interaction Positioning the study of genre in terms of: reading events, reading practices over a period of time “Units” of study: individual reader, some form of institutionalized reading practices such as reading clubs, reading groups organized online Methodologies for the study of readers' interpretations of genre: behaviors implying physical interactions with the texts interactions among the readers by studying reading clubs and various organized reading communities how readers interpret texts within their life-worlds as form of social action

Current Approaches to the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Current Approaches to the Study of Genre Structure Context Appropriation

Current Approaches to the Study of Genre _____________________________________ Current Approaches to the Study of Genre Structural Text itself object of study (defining characteristics of structure: plot, textual forms that add up to form a genre) Authorial intent relies on the concept of implied reader (Umberto Eco) to explain genre conventions in terms of objectively recognizable traits Protocols for reading (Scholes) embedded in the text itself Structural approach: devising classificatory models for categorization of genres

Current Approaches to the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Current Approaches to the Study of Genre Contextual Book historians focused on infrastructures to reveal how genres are distributed, manufactured, and the study of the construction of genre through publishing infrastructure Studies of readership and trends in audience transformation (objective evidence of reading as related to the context of production, distribution and the book trade) Notion of the common reader (Altick) (historically constructed generalized reader identified from documentary practices)

Current Approaches to the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Current Approaches to the Study of Genre Appropriation Genre is a subjective entity the reality of which is formed through a reader(s) interpretation Object of study is the reader as real person in context, networks of readers, and reading events and practices Originally inspired by reader-response Inverts the paradigm of the structure of text as subordinate to the construction of text at the point of reading Boundaries between print and electronic not relevant

Precepts for the Study of Genre ________________________________________ Precepts for the Study of Genre Need for localization (time, space, community) Need for interpretation of historical / transformational aspects of genre Need to study literary as cultural text