Wednesday, November 29, 2006

On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, III

"Genres are definable in terms of specific combinations of features stemming from the double orientation in life, in reality, which each type of artistic 'form of the whole' commands - an orientation at once from outside in and from inside out. What is at stake in the first instance is the actual statuss of the work as social fact: its definition in real time and space; its means and mode of performance; the kind of audience presupposed and the relationshop between atuhor and audience establish; its association with social institutions, social mores and other idealogical spheres; in short - its full 'situational' definition." pp. 6-7

Volosinov's description of genre.

Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Duke University Press, 1993.

1 comment:

skuo said...

The idea of genre is always fascinating to me. Genre is not just a category, but an extremely powerful informing agent, especially in the world of art and cinema. Genre works reciprocally with the audience to create expectations. It surrounds us.