Foss on Genre

Who was the theorist for Genre

Foss

Genre

Fusing/clustering/constellation of

1. situation

2. content (substance)

3. style (form)

4. organizing principle

Situational Requirements

• perceptions of conditions in a situation that call forth particularly kinds of rhetorical responses

Content (substance) requirements

• Content or substance of rhetoric chosen by speaker to respond to perceived requirements of particular situations.

Style requirements

• Style/form features of rhetoric chosen by speaker to respond to perceived requirements of particular situations.

Organizing principle

the energy that holds a rhetorical genre together. You can read a a million commencement speeches and there is a common energy that binds them all in that genre

umbrella term for various characteristic features of the rhetoric.

Recurring situations and genre

genre is ties to situations, genre grows out of a situation. Genre includes expectations about the situation

ex. eulogy. There are expectations about the situation based the existence of a eulogy

Other senses of genre

movie genre, song genre, etc. ex. hiphop. certain characteristics, like ingredients, are expected to exist in each genre, like genre for rhetoric. BUT lacks situation

Foss’s genre for rhetoric vs. other senses of genre

Foss’ genre for rhetoric contains a situation, which other senses of genre lack (ex. you can play hiphop anywhere…)

Should rhetoric 100% meet the expectations of its genre

NO!!! You need something unexpected. If it 100% meets expectations, its boring…

ex. the commencement speech you’ve heard a bajillion times

Should rhetoric break its genre too much?

NO!!! if something breaks its genre too much, it becomes inappropriate to the situation..

ex. the girl who just talked about study abroad for Trinity commencement speech… like no

Genre as a way of encapsulating a situation

As you analyze a situation, you can guess the style and content of the “correct” rhetorical genre, and then judge whether its good rhetoric or not

When someone chooses a genre for a situation…

they choose how the audience should see the situation, how they themselves see the situation, and how the culture they are apart of sees the situation

3 ways to “analyze the artifacts” aka analyze rhetoric

Generic description, Generic participation, and generic application

Generic Description

discovering a genre

the critic examines several rhetorical artifacts to determine if a genre exists. Inductive.

You see similar discourse across similar situations and think it may be a genre. Then, try and find specific similarities in situation, content, style, and organizing principle between the artifacts. This will let you figure out if a genre exists

Generic Participation

1. deductive process in which critic starts with a genre and determines if a piece of rhetoric fits in that genre

2. it aids understanding of something to put in into a category

ex. you hear a speech and decide it fits into the eulogy category

Generic Application

deductive process where you assess what genre a rhetorical piece fits into, but THEN analyze how the piece altered/tweaked the genre

how the individual thing changes a genre