Genre and engagement

In this essay, I would like to explore a little further genre and its place in the world. Such a statement is possibly presumptuous in an issue dedicated to exploring « New Horizons in Stylistics ». For one thing, it presumes that genre analysis has already established itself as one way of going about the business of capturing stylistic variation. It also presumes that genres do, indeed, have their place in the management of human affairs; that in Martin's well-known dictum, « Genres are how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them » (1985, p. 250). While I think both claims are by now solidly established, they also suggest that if stylistics — as traditionally conceived — wishes a greater rapprochement with the burgeoning work on genre then it may need to expand its interests (and methodologies) to incorporate more social and contextual features. And I dare say comparable considerations already apply to literary texts as well, at least as illustrated by Levinson's stunning study of « The Romantic Fragment Poem », wherein she is able to show that the historical and cultural conditions of two hundred years ago led to the projection of the accidental and occasional as a