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“GENRE” AND “DISCOURSE” IN VICTORIAN CULTURAL STUDIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1999

Carolyn Williams
Carolyn Williams
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
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Abstract

By what criteria is one to isolate the unities with which one is dealing . . . What is the legitimate level of formalization?

—Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge

BOTH “DISCOURSE” AND “GENRE,” like all constructed and generalizing categories, have a purely formalizing aspect as well as a historical, effective (or political) aspect. They name and group things abstractly, but those names themselves are shaped and precipitated in history and, in turn, they exert a powerful shaping force on historical life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , September 1999 , pp. 517 - 520
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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