A Few (Skeptical) Notes on the Theoretical Ramifications of Genres in the Contemporary Public Space
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Piotr Cap
Abstract
This paper is a tentative attempt to identify some basic-level conceptual and theoretical problems underlying the mainstream genre theory, which adversely affect the analysis of rapidly evolving, complex and hybrid genres in the modern communicative space. Having discussed these problems, I go on to I argue that the space of contemporary public communication should be viewed as not only an “analytic problem”, but also/rather a domain whose explorations could potentially revise the existing principles of genre theory. In particular, I suggest such explorations should focus on the conception of (public communication) genres as (i) abstractions, (ii) activators and realizers of context, (iii) flexible macrostructures, (iv) social field entities, (v) assigners of interpersonal roles. Notwithstanding a possible advancement of genre theory resulting from this approach, I conclude that it is only a first and admittedly uncertain step in trying to establish a sound theoretical framework for communicative genres in the modern discourse space.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- A Few (Skeptical) Notes on the Theoretical Ramifications of Genres in the Contemporary Public Space
- Commissive and Expressive Illocutionary Acts in Political Discourse
- A Relevance–Theoretical Account of Three Arabic Pragmatic Operators of Concession in a Political Discourse
- The Relevance of the principle of Relevance for Word Order Variation in Complex Referring Expressions in Mandarin Chinese
- “Je suis Muslim”: The Image of Muslims in a Bulgarian and a British Newspaper
- Review of Why Discourse Matters: Negotiating Identity in the Mediatized World. by Yusuf Kalyango, Jr. and Monika Weronika Kopytowska (eds.).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- A Few (Skeptical) Notes on the Theoretical Ramifications of Genres in the Contemporary Public Space
- Commissive and Expressive Illocutionary Acts in Political Discourse
- A Relevance–Theoretical Account of Three Arabic Pragmatic Operators of Concession in a Political Discourse
- The Relevance of the principle of Relevance for Word Order Variation in Complex Referring Expressions in Mandarin Chinese
- “Je suis Muslim”: The Image of Muslims in a Bulgarian and a British Newspaper
- Review of Why Discourse Matters: Negotiating Identity in the Mediatized World. by Yusuf Kalyango, Jr. and Monika Weronika Kopytowska (eds.).
