Genre Constituents in “Reflections on Genre as Social Action” – in the Light of 1980s’ Genre Research

Abstract

The article comments upon a special issue on genre in cjsdw, focusing what may be key components or constituents of genre as a general concept. The search for key aspects in these texts are seen in the light of descriptions of genre from the 1980s by Frow (1980), Miller (1984), Bakhtin (1986), and Freadman (1987). Three issues are covered, aspects, levels, and processes, and in addition the challenge of applying concepts coined in a (sub-)field when discussing genre as an overarching, interdisciplinary, semiotic concept. The inquiry leads up to five constitutive aspects, form, content, act, time, and space. It is argued that this set defines the levels utterance and genre. Different processes are discussed. The article ends modelling aspects, levels, and processes in a basic conceptual framework.

Keywords

• genre research