Cinnabar and Alabaster

passages
4. "at its worst, genre is a trivial and dangerous concept" because in addition to naming & describing it "artificially compares unique authors and works of art...and stifles true creativity"
6. the form issue: "classifications are the effects of genre but not the extent of genre" (she spends many pages demonstrating/reitterating this)
12. genre also = expectation (in but also beyond form); "picking up a text, readers not only classify it and expect a certain form, but also make assumptions about the text's purposes, its subject matter, its writer, and its expected reader"
21. paradox: "people recognize recurring situations because they knew genres, yet genres exist only because people have acted as though situations have recurred"; it works b/c "their relationship is reciprocal and dynamic"
23. resulting from this reciprocity is what happens when someone encounters a shift in genre which causes him/her confusion about the "writer's purpose or the reader's role...the situation" or misreads the genre entirely (i.e. our poor students & Swift)
27. existing defs of genre (already binding it to situational context) need 1) culture (or cultural context) & 2) the influence of other genres ("context of genres")
31. proposition/definition: "that genre be seen not as a response to recurring situation but as a nexus between an individual's actions and a socially defined context. genre is a reciprocal dynamic within which individuals' actions construct and are constructed by recurring context of situation, context of culture, and context of genres. genre is visible in classification and form, relationships and patterns that develop when language users identify different tasks as being similar. but genre exists through people's individual rhetorical actions at the nexus of the contexts of situation, culture, and genres"

67. "there are many ways of grouping texts...but when considering genres within their contexts, the generic classification that matters most must be the classification recognized by the users of those genres"
69-70. sometimes sub-groups within heterogenous groups identify genres differently, which can tell researchers about both the genres and the groups.
87. "the power of genre to encourage conformity is strong indeed," but "that power does not make genres evil or even necessarily politically repressive....standards themselves...are not negative; it is how society uses those standards that makes them work for or against people."

90. over time, situations change, & so do their genres.
91. "changes in any one genre necessarily constitute a change in the context of genres, which in turn changes the context within individual genres are shaped" & changes other genres.
92. because "genre is...a nexus of contexts...then any new genre must emerge from a relationship with old genres"
124. genres change at different levels; overall shape/purpose/etc. might change, but so might the appropriateness of various linguistic features at the word/sentence level.
129. language change--word endings, for example--in her study "was happening differently in different genres"
134. "most individuals who effect genre change may never even be aware that they are doing so. in all of the cases [devitt studied] individual actions must compound to create collective change. [so] the combination of contextual forces and individual forces is probably necessary for genre changes to have much currency or endurance"

a note about sources:
she does a lot of work w/campbell & jamieson's deeds done in words--i told you guys that was a good resource & an important book to work with even if it's not in the mainstream list. i didn't know princess amy knew when i insisted, but now i do!