Genre

It is very important that you read some modern theories of genre, particularly
those of Todorov, Bakhtin, Derrida, Genette, Fowler, and Eagleton. It is worth
working your way through the recent volume entitled Modern Genre Theory
edited by Duff (see below). You may then think back to your period papers. Do
theories of genre alter from period to period? Is it helpful to think of genre as a
static set of rules or as more evolutionary? Is genre an ‘enabling device’ to aid
interpretation or a blueprint for a writer?
M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination (1981)
M. Bakhtin, Speech Genres (1987)
C. Brooke-Rose, ‘Historical Genres/Theoretical Genres’, New Literary History 8,
1976, pp. 145-158
A. Butterfield, ‘Medieval Genres and Modern Genre Theory’, Paragraph, 13
(1990)
E. Cobley, ‘Mikhail Bakhtin’s Place in Genre Theory’, Genre, 21 (1988)
J. Culler, Structuralist Poetics (1975, repr. 2002) [chapter 7]
J. Derrida, ‘The Law of Genre’, Critical Inquiry 7:1, 1980, 55-82, rpr. in On
Narrative, ed. W.J.T. Mitchell
*H. Dubrow, Genre (1982)
*D. Duff (ed.) Modern Genre Theory (2000)
D. Fishelov, Metaphors of Genre (1993)
*A. Fowler, Kinds of Literature (1982)
A.J. Gilbert, Literary Language from Chaucer to Johnson (Macmillan, 1979)
M. Jacobus, ‘The Law of Gender/and Genre’ Diacritics, 14, 1984, 44-57
T. Todorov, ‘The Typology of Detective Fiction’, in D. Lodge (ed.), Modern
Criticism and Theory: A Reader (1988, repr. 1994)
S. Vice, Introducing Bakhtin (1997)
D. Wood (ed.), Derrida: A Critical Reader (1992)
 Orality and Literacy
Once again, it is important to look back to your period papers when considering this
subject (for example, Old English literature, popular Middle English romance,
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ballads). You may wish to focus on examples of
‘oral’ productions such as proverbs, nursery rhymes, children’s games, ballads,
protest songs, popular music (including rap), or radio plays by writers such as Sylvia
Plath or Angela Carter.
Some editions:
*R. Finnegan, Oral Poetry (1977)
J. Kinsley, The Oxford Book of Ballads (1969)
C. Mackay, A Collection of Songs and Ballades… (1841)
I. and P. Opie, The Singing Game (1985)
----------------The Lore and Language of School Children (1959, repr.2001)
----------------The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes (1952)
J. A. Simpson, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1998)
Background Reading
*D. Abercrombie, ‘Conversation and Spoken Prose’, in Studies in Phonetics and
Linguistics, (1965)
N.F. Blake, Non-Standard Language in English Literature (1981)
G. Brown and G. Yule, Teaching the Spoken Language (1983)
*A. Easthope, Poetry as Discourse (1983) ch. on ballad.
J. Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (1986)
R. Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy (1958)
I. Illich and B. Sanders, The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind (1988)
*M. Nystrand, ed., What Writers Know: The Language Process and Structure of
Written Discourse (1982)
W.J. Ong, ‘Oral Residue in Tudor Prose Style’, in his Rhetoric, Romance and
Technology (1971)
*W.J. Ong, Orality and Literacy (1982)
N. Page, Speech in the English Novel (1987)
R. Palmer, The Sounds of History: Song and Social Comment (1996)
*M. Stubbs, Language and Literacy: The Sociolinguistics of Reading and Writing
(1980)
*D. Tanner, ed., Spoken and Written Language (1982)
K. Thomas, ‘Literacy in Early Modern England’, in The Written Word, ed. Gertrud
Bauman (1986)
 Chaucer’s Language
*D.S. Brewer, ‘Chaucer’s Poetic Style’, in The Cambridge Chaucer Companion,
ed. LI. Boitani & J. Mann (1986)
D.S. Brewer, ed., Chaucer: The Critical Heritage Vol.1: 1385-1837 (1978)
*D. Burnley, A Guide to Chaucer's Language (1983)
*J.D. Burnley, Chaucer's Language and the Philosopher's Tradition (1979)
*N. Davis, et al. eds, A Chaucer Glossary (1979)
*N. Davis, ‘Language and Versification’, in The Riverside Chaucer, ed. L.D.
Benson, 3rd.ed.
E.T. Donaldson, ‘Chaucer's Final –e’, PMLA, 63 (1948) & 64 (1949)
E.T. Donaldson, ‘Idiom of Popular Poetry in the Miller’s Tale’, in Speaking of
Chaucer (1970)
A.J. Gilbert, Literary Language from Chaucer to Johnson (1979), ch. 1
J. Mersand, Chaucer's Romance Vocabulary (1939)
J.J. Murphy, ‘A New Look at Chaucer and the Rhetoricians’, RES, 15 (1964)
J.J. Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (1974)
C. Muscatine, ‘The Canterbury Tales: style of the man and style of the work’, in
Chaucer and Chaucerians ed. D.S. Brewer (1966)
I. J. Mustanoja, ‘Chaucer's Prosody’, in Companion to Chaucer Studies, ed. Beryl
Rowland (1979)
R. O. Payne, The Key of Remembrance: A Study of Chaucer’s Poetics (1963)
R. O. Payne, ‘Chaucer and the Art of Rhetoric’, in Companion to Chaucer
Studies, ed. Beryl Rowland (1979)
R.A. Peters, ‘Chaucer’s Language’, Journal of English Linguistics, Occasional
Monographs I (1980)
G. Roscow, Syntax and Style in Chaucer's Poetry (1981)
T.W. Ross, Chaucer’s Bawdy (1972)
W. Rothwell, ‘Lexical Borrowing in a Medieval Context’, Bulletin of the John
Ryland's Library, 63 (1980)
V. Salmon, ‘The representation of colloquial speech in The Canterbury Tales’, in
Style and Text, ed. H. Ringbom (1975)
M. L. Samuels, ‘Chaucerian Final –E’, Notes and Queries NS, 19 (1972)
M. L. Samuels, ‘Chaucer's Spelling’, in Middle English Studies [for] Norman
Davis, ed. D. Gray and E. Stanley (1983)
A.O. Sandved, Introduction to Chaucerian English (1983)
M. Schlauch, ‘Chaucer's Colloquial English’, PMLA, (1952)
*J. J. Smith, The English of Chaucer and His Contemporaries, (1988)
*J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘Chaucer as Philologist’, Transactions of the Philological
Society, 1934
 Social Aspects of the Use of English: Language and Gender

*D. Cameron, Feminism and Linguistic Theory (1992)

*D. Cameron (ed.), The Feminist Critique of Language (1990)

*J. Coates (ed.), Women, Men and Language (1993)

J. Coates and D. Cameron (eds), Women in their Speech Communities (1989)

J. Coates, Women Talk (1996)

P.P. Giglioli (ed.), Language and Social Context (1972)

*J. Holmes, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (1992)

J. Holmes, Women, Men and Politeness (1995)

S. Johnson and U. H. Meinhof, Language and Masculinity (1997)

W. Labov, Sociolinguistic Patterns (1978)

T. W. Machan and C. T. Scott (eds), English in its Social Contexts: Essays in

Historical Linguistics (1992)

L. Milroy, Language and Social Networks (1987)

S. Romaine, Language in Society (1994)

P. Trudgill, Sociolinguistics (1983)

Social and Institutional Contexts of Literary Discourse

H. Cixous and C. Clement, The New Born Woman (1986)

L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1985)

L. Irigaray, The Sex Which is Not One (1985)

T. Moi (ed.), The Kristeva Reader (1986)

E. Marks and I. De Courtivron (eds), New French Feminisms (1980)

T. Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics (1985)

J. Montefiore, Feminism and Poetry (1987)

P. Paker, Literary Fat Ladies: Rhetoric, Gender, Property (1987)

M. Wittig, ‘The Mark of Gender’, in N. K. Miller (ed.), The Politics of Gender (1986)