Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept

Abstract

Our field has become riddled with dichotomies that threaten to undermine our holistic understanding of writing.Form and content (and the related form and function, text and context), product and process, individual and society-these dichotomies too often define our research affiliations, our pedagogies, and our theories.If we are to understand writing as a unified act, as a complex whole, we must find ways to overcome these dichotomies.Recent conceptions of genre as a dynamic and semiotic construct illustrate how to unify form and content, place text within context, balance process and product, and acknowledge the role of both the individual and the social.This reconception of genre may even lead us to a unified theory of writing.The most recent understandings of genre derive from the work of several significant theorists working with different agendas and from different fields: from literature (