Genre Changing with Time

Conventional definitions of genre tend to be based on the idea that they constitute particular conventions of content (i.e. themes or setting) and/or form (i.e. structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them. However, with the development of new technology and social media, the distribution of media has changed dramatically and scholars/critics cannot ignore that the conventional definition of genre was not good enough anymore. For example, letters and newspapers were not only getting distributed by mail, but electronically as well. This change in distribution changed one of the five canons of rhetoric, delivery, what is delivery, and how we define delivery. Therefore, we see Amy J. Devitt, an English professor at the University of Kansas, take on the challenge of redefining genre. She begins to develop her genre theory "with rhetorical situation and expands it to encompass a semiotic situation and social context (Devitt, 576)." By including semiotic situation and social context, she not only looks at form and context to define genre, but also the environment and social situation the work was written in. By doing this, Devitt conveyed that genre is not a static concept, but always changing because genre is constantly responding to, as well as constructing recurring situations. We see genre change with society because "situation is inherently social as well as a rhetorical concept (Devitt, 579)."

In this example below, I will break down Devitt's definition of genre a little more to help explain how genre constructs and responds to recurring situations by explaining how laws were originally implemented.

Humans have been around for almost 30,000 years, and for the most part, had no written history. But, around 5,000 BCE, things slowly started to change. Humans started to settle down in one place, began growing their own food and building permanent homes. However, as humans started to live in close proximity to one another, people began to recognize the need for authoritative figures to keep peace and prevent chaos in their cities. In this quest for authoritative figures in early civilizations, a city would usually have two to several people trying to command his/her authority over the people. However, with so many commanding authority, the common folk did not know who to follow or what oral commands to follow. This is when we start to see the construct of the question of “Who holds governing power and authority?”

We see the response to this situation in one of the early civilizations called Mesopotamia. King Hammurabi decided to legitimize his authority by transcribing his laws into stone. These laws are known as the Code of Hammurabi, and the impact of recording his laws was vast. By transcribing his laws into stone, his laws had more influence over others trying to command authority, they were permanent, and it increased his audience and circulation of his laws.

 

Since Hammurabi responded to the situation in a fitting matter, many other leaders and conquers began to respond in the same or a similar way. Later, we start to see the Ancient Romans record their commands on twelve stone tablets (The Twelve Tables of Ancient Rome), and the Egyptians on papyrus. With so many civilizations responding the same to the question of “Who holds governing power and authority?”, we begin to see similarities among responses. "These similarities among responses then became established as generic conventions and recognizable written genres of orders, laws, codes, and proclamations began to form (Bazerman, 17)."

With this example, I hope you have a better understanding of Devitt's genre theory, but now I would like to take a look at how Edouard Duval- Carrié challenged and/or complicated Devitt's idea of genre.

In Duval-Carrié's exhibit, he uses a large variety of media within his installations, however, I personally do not think he challenges or complicates Devitt's concept of genre, but does exactly what Devitt conveys genre is: responding to and constructing recurring situations. Mixed media art is something that we see a lot of nowadays because artists are responding to the advancement in technology and tools. Artists being more and better equipped, artists can now display their art and messages with a variety of methods (i.e. installations) and stir away from using just using one conventional method of artistry (i.e. sculpturing and painting). However, we do see Duval-Carrié excel at implementing Longinus' idea of sublime. Longinus does not provide us with an exact definition, but sublime can be described as the soul within a body, or "the amazement and wonder that exerts invincible power and force and gets the better of every hearer (Longinus, 347)."