1. I’m thinking about Dirk’s note about the State of the Union
Address – about how when it was first made it was the only text in its genre,
then others followed suit. I guess I’m wondering, can you have a genre with
only one text in it, or was the genre made after other texts were made in the
image of the first? And, to relate it to teaching genre, if a genre can have
only one text, how do we avoid turning the conversation into one about how
anything can be a genre or nothing belongs in a genre?
2. Shipka praises multimodality in her essay, yet writes in
only one mode. My questions here are similar to the questions I asked while
learning things like the quadratic formula. That is, how are students going to
use multimodal projects in their professional lives? Especially when their
champions are not using them in their professional work. I understand that they
help develop skills and strategies, but what practical applications do they
have?
Robert, I have questioned almost the same thing regarding when communication becomes a new "genre". I know I read in one of the many texts we have read this summer that for communication to become genre is must be replicated many times. The academic in me wants a more quantifiable answer to this. I would also like be able to see an emerging pattern and watch for it to become a genre or at the very least discuss with my students.
ReplyDeleteI feel like every profession that engages capitalism in one way or another uses multimodality, even if not to the extent that we typically teach in composition courses. I feel multimodal presentations are how for profit markets engage potential consumers on multiple fronts. I hope I'm not missing something fundamental.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that one instance creates a genre, but rather, that one instance belongs somewhere on a spectrum to a genre. For example, if the rappers of the late '80s defined hip-hop genres, the rise of profanity-laced, aggressive hip hop that rose in the 90s became a new genre: gangsta rap. It did not represent all rap, but represented much of it during the 90s on both the East and West coast. But if only one hip hop album had these conventions, and the rest of hip hop remained similar to the '80s (no swearing, hippy-paced, uplifting, but still lyrical exercises), than that one instance would be an outlier to the genre of hip hop. In our current age of hip hop, mumble-rappers are starting to solidify their own genre, and its starting to become a main genre of rap. But if only Lil Yachty existed, and no other mumble-rappers were big right now, it would not constitute an entire genre.
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