While
maintaining a longstanding interest in the conventions and discursive
histories of generic
forms, we at Genre intend to emphasize more
fully the intricate relations between genre and its social,
institutional, cultural and
political contexts. We aim to stress the
broad range of material affiliations that activate generic form in a
dynamic field of
socio-historical and discursive practices. This
orientation has several components. To
begin
with, it signals an interest in nonliterary as well as literary
discourses, in visual,
musical, filmic or architectural artifacts, as well as written texts. It encourages explorations of "high" and
"low" art forms, including their relation to mass and popular culture. In broader terms, its goal is to stimulate a
variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to genre and
its social
functions. Our outlook promotes historical
perspectives on genre, including efforts to evaluate the merits of
previous approaches to
genre and compare them with those of more recent formulations. Finally, it highlights an explicit concern
with
the theoretical, institutional or political dimensions of discourse, a
concern that
includes international perspectives on genre.
We
encourage work that studies the relation between discursive forms and
cultural formations
without taking for granted either of the terms of our
subtitle--discourse or culture. The word discourse
encompasses the entire range of possible written, visual and auditory
generic forms, while
culture registers the suggestive convergence of
artistic, social and institutional practices. But
both terms, rather than setting out secured categories or signaling a
particular critical
perspective, are intended as markers of general terrain whose contours
should be
reexamined, and whose borders will undoubtedly be disputed and
redefined. Over the last two decades, the
study of genre as
cultural discourse has been pursued in many individual articles
published by Genre, as well as in virtually every
special issue
we have commissioned, from The Forms of Power and
the Power of Forms in the Renaissance (1982) to Prisoners
Writing (2002).
The
journal has consistently striven to be responsive to recent critical
developments,
especially those in the disciplines of literature and language study. Our perspective is best summarized in the term
"cultural studies," provided that the term is understood in its
broadest sense. It draws upon work related
to feminist, gender,
gay and lesbian, multi-ethnic and post-colonial studies, as well as the
varieties of
cultural materialist, Marxist and New Historicist criticism,
particularly those that have
taken up the challenges to traditional ideas of aesthetic and political
representation
posed by structuralist, poststructuralist and postmodernist critique. To a great extent, this diverse body of work
has
challenged older historical or humanist approaches, but it also shares
with its
predecessors a general perception of the importance of history. That emphasis has, in turn, reestablished
genre as
a crucial category of study, though now the relation between individual
texts and larger
discursive and social networks has been taken in new conceptual,
cultural and
international directions. With that in
mind,
the journal invites articles that treat genre, conceived as any
regularity in discourse or
culture, from all theoretical perspectives.
First, a
willingness to push the boundaries of accepted interdisciplinarity
further, to construct
pathways from literary and cultural artifacts not only to the
oft-visited terrains of
history, political science, psychology and philosophy, but also to
those more seldom
mapped, like music and architecture, and even to those that lie
seemingly beyond the
fields we know: the physical sciences and mathematics.
If there is a genre of scholarship best suited for the work that
Genre seeks to encourage and publish, it is the
travelers' tale. But where traditional
travelers' tales are credulous, critical travelers' tales must be
skeptical; where
traditional travelers' tales are exoticist, critical travelers' tales
must be decentered. But these important
distinctions should not
obscure the essential continuity that justifies the metaphor: all
travelers' tales, the
critical as well as the traditional, are constituted by a voyage out
and a voyage in. Whether we call this
structure dialectical or
differential, we must acknowledge that, done well, it produces a form
of counter-illumination of each terrain by the other
and of both by their relation that is the goal of all truly
interdisciplinary work.
Second, Genre sets itself apart through our determination
to be a point of passage for debates taking place not only in many
disciplines, but in
many languages and locales as well. While Genre's languages of publication will continue to
be the varieties of English, the journal will also make space available
for translations
of important critical and theoretical texts published around the globe. Since no editorial group, no matter how large
and
dedicated it may be, can remain current with all debates in all places,
we call upon our
contributors and readers to supplement the editors' efforts by
suggesting relevant texts
for translation or, preferably, by submitting translations as well as
original articles
for review. Such translations may form the
nuclei of special issues or stand on their own in our general issues.
Third,
the editors of Genre recognize the work of its
advisory editors and referees, along with that of the scholars we
publish and review, as
an exemplary contribution to the new modes of understanding and
innovative critical
approaches that constantly expand our intellectual world.
Such work promotes intellectual community by fostering
innovative, lucid or
passionate ideas that we can share, extend or contest in our turn. We know that one way to demonstrate our
respect
for this process is to provide the scholars who submit their work to Genre with thoughtful and thorough responses in a
timely fashion. But we will do more than
that. We have instituted a regular book
review section to publish the submitted and commissioned reviews that
carry on this
academic discussion in its most direct form. Finally,
in addition to the list of editors on our masthead, we will acknowledge
all those who have
lent their hands to the progress of our enterprise by publishing annual
lists of those who
have reviewed submissions for Genre.
We intend in this way to show how large, diverse
and effective the intellectual community is, and how much we have been
and continue to be
indebted to it.
We hope
you will follow the reports of our critical travels, and send us news
of your own.
Timothy S.
Murphy
General Editor
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Editorial |