The Persistence of Genre

Abstract

Research Article| December 01 2020 The Persistence of Genre Kenneth W. Warren Kenneth W. Warren Kenneth W. Warren is Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is What Was African American Literature? (2011). He is also editor, with Tess Chakkalakal, of Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs (2013). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Modern Language Quarterly (2020) 81 (4): 567–577. https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-8637976 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Kenneth W. Warren; The Persistence of Genre. Modern Language Quarterly 1 December 2020; 81 (4): 567–577. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-8637976 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsModern Language Quarterly Search Advanced Search Many times over the course of what is beginning to feel like a quite lengthy teaching career, I have introduced students to the idea of genre by citing the definition that the late Robert Scholes provided in his brief but redoubtable book, Textual Power: Literary Theory and the Teaching of English. Genre, according to Scholes (1985: 2), refers to things regularly done and style to a regular way of doing things. In painting, landscape is a genre and impressionism is a style. Genres are social and durable; they persist through changes of style. A style is more local, often personal, as when we speak of Shakespearean comedy as opposed to Jonsonian comedy or Monet’s impressionism as opposed to Renoir’s. Both genres and styles, however, manifest themselves in recurrent patterns or codes that can be constructed by analyzing a set... Copyright © 2020 by University of Washington2020 You do not currently have access to this content.