Theories of Genre - Einzelansicht

Though (or more likely, because) the concept of genre has been theorised for ages and from a wide range of perspectives, literary genre theory has come to no firm conclusions to even the most basic questions, such as: What is a genre? Is ‘genre’ a descriptive or a normative category? How do genres affect our understanding of a text?

In our seminar, we will pursue these questions by reading and discussing a selection of influential theorizations of genre, including structuralist, poststructuralist and rhetorical criticism as well as reader-response models. We will apply our findings by zooming in on one particular genre, namely science fiction, and on one of its representative specimens, Amitv Ghosh’s novel, The Calcutta Chromosome, which we will study in depth with reference to its generic features.

Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome

A range of genre theoretical texts will be made available on Moodle by the beginning of the semester.

The Calcutta Chromosome must have been read by the first week of November!

3 CPs for regular and active participation and a response paper.