Genre Studies Network

  • an interdisciplinary network
  • funded by AHRC
  • organised by Dr Natasha Rulyova, the University of Birmingham

The more information humans have to deal with on a daily basis and the faster they have to do it, the stronger their need is for effective means of ordering information. Genre as taxonomy fulfils this human need. Genre is used to structure information, to create meaning, and to make sense of reality. These are only a few of the many questions that the genre studies network will address:

  •  How do people arrive at their judgement about the genre of the text?
  •  What is the relationship between the medium and genre, the canon and genre, the author and genre?
  •  Is the development of genres a function of technological development or a result of aesthetic judgement?
  •  How do genres travel across historical, cultural and linguistic boundaries? How do they help and impede human communication?
  •  What correlations have been asserted between genre and gender?

Workshops

Workshop 1 - Genre: theory, methodology and practice

Date
06/10/2012
Description
What informs our judgement about the genre of a text?

Workshop 2 - Genre, gender and identity

Date
24/11/2012
Location:
University of Birmingham
Description
What critical approaches are there to gendering and genre-ing of the text?

Workshop 3 - Genre and new technologies

Date
10/12/2012
Location:
University of Birmingham
Description
Do new technologies necessarily lead to the advent of new genres? What are the differences between the medium and genre?

Workshop 4 - Genre in translation: crossing cultural, linguistic, disciplinary, media and other boundaries

Date
23/02/2013
Location:
University of Leeds
Description
How successfully does genre communicate across cultural frontiers?

Workshop 5 - Genre and canons of representation

Date
29/04/2013
Location:
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Description
What are the implications of the emergence of new modes of visuality for old genres?

Workshop 6 - Communicating Genre: the author, the text and the audience

Date
10/06/2013
Location:
London, Senate House
Description
What is the role of so-called 'generic contract' between the author and readers/audiences?

Genre and Memory

Date
28/09/2013
Location:
Centre for Professional Development, University of Birmingham
Description
Workshop on Memory and Genre.