El Cuarto de Atrás
An Introduction to Genre Theory
Daniel Chandler
The following questions are offered as basic guidelines for
my own students in analysing an individual text in relation to genre. Note
that an analysis of a text which is framed exclusively in terms
of genre may be of limited usefulness. Generic analysis can also, of course,
involve studying the genre more broadly: in examining the genre one may
fruitfully consider such issues as how the conventions of the genre have
changed over time.
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General
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Why did you choose the text you are analysing?
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In what context did you encounter it?
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What influence do you think this context might have had on
your interpretation of the text?
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To what genre did you initially assign the text?
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What is your experience of this genre?
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What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned
with?
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How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
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What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?
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Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular
text (where)?
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What generic labels have others given the same text?
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Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text?
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To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of
its genre?
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Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of
the genre?
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Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre
(and which genre(s))?
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What familiar motifs or images are used?
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Which of the formal/stylistic techniques employed are typical/untypical
of the genre?
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What institutional constraints are reflected in the form
of the text?
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What relationship to 'reality' does the text lay claim to?
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Whose realities does it reflect?
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What purposes does the genre serve?
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In what ways are these purposes embodied in the text?
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To what extent did your purposes match these when you engaged
with the text?
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What ideological assumptions and values seem to be embedded
in the text?
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What pleasures does this genre offer to you personally?
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What pleasures does the text appeal to (and how typical of
the genre is this)?
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Did you feel 'critical or accepting, resisting or validating,
casual or concentrated, apathetic or motivated' (and why)?
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Which elements of the text seemed salient because of your
knowledge of the genre?
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What predictions about events did your generic identification
of the text lead to (and to what extent did these prove accurate)?
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What inferences about people and their motivations did your
genre identification give rise to (and how far were these confirmed)?
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How and why did your interpretation of the text differ from
the interpretation of the same text by other people?
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Mode of address
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What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed
at (and how typical was this of the genre)?
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How does the text address you?
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What sort of person does it assume you are?
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What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender
and ethnicity?
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What interests does it assume you have?
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What relevance does the text actually have for you?
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What knowledge does it take for granted?
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To what extent do you resemble the 'ideal reader' that the
text seeks to position you as?
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Are there any notable shifts in the text's mode of address
(and if so, what do they involve)?
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What responses does the text seem to expect from you?
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How open to negotiation is your response (are you invited,
instructed or coerced to respond in particular ways)?
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Is there any penalty for not responding in the expected ways?
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To what extent do you find yourself 'reading against the
grain' of the text and the genre?
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Which attempts to position you in this text do you accept,
reject or seek to negotiate (and why)?
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How closely aligned is the way in which the text addresses
you with the way in which the genre positions you (Kress 1988, 107)?
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Relationship to other texts
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What intertextual references are there in the text you are
analysing (and to what other texts)?
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Generically, which other texts does the text you are analysing
resemble most closely?
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What key features are shared by these texts?
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What major differences do you notice between them?
Cabecera
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by Daniel Chandler, University
of Wales
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