Complexity Of The Relationship Between Text And Genre Analysis

The Complexity of the Relationship between Texts and Genres When studying genres in literature, one of the main questions which one has to ask one’s self is if the category of genre determines how a story is narrated or if there are more complex connections between a text and genres. There are many theories about this relationship and a good number of them seem to suggest that there is a direct influence of genre upon narrative. In particular, the Structuralist approaches to these issue “acknowledge the power of genre to shape textual interpretation and production” (Bawarshi & Reiff 19). Even how readers approach texts seems to tell us that there is an expectation for the text to follow certain rules depending on their attributed genres.
Or that throughout the writing process elements from other genres are not dragged into the narration? These questions have fascinated many scholars and there is not a univocal response. Every literary movement and intellectual have their own interpretation as Beghtol’s “The Concept of Genre and its Characteristics” shows. We should always keep in mind that a genre is not something static, or that has always existed. As Beghtol affirms, a genre is at least partly influenced by the cultural context in which it is placed (19) and a text is always interpreted depending on the readers’ social and cultural knowledge (Bawarshi & Reiff 24-25). One concrete example that can be analysed to explore the genre-text relationship is George Eliot’s Silas Marner (1861). When she wrote this novel, she was trying to follow the conventions of realism, a genre which was particularly important in the nineteenth century. We directly know that she wanted to create a realist novel, even if her original idea had a different
As Susan Stewart points out, its features are various, first the figure of the weaver which was common and was related to magic in folk tales (520). But also the structure of the novel which follows the numbers three and sixteen and implies “magical and cyclical aspects” (519); the fact that there is a pot of gold and a rainbow (519), respectively Silas’s treasure and the Rainbow where the people of the village meet; the transformation element (519), “Gold! [...] but instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls” (Silas 108-109); the reversed Cinderella element (519), “I wasn’t brought up to be a lady, and I can’t turn my mind to it. I like the working-folks, and their victuals, and their ways” (Silas 168); etc. It is evident that despite having been conceived as a realist novel, Silas Marner reflects not only one genre. However, it is worth considering one last element that pertains to the realist domain and links the text to another one which is good to investigate. As it has been said, in the narration there is the theme of social change. It is connected with the Darwinian and Marxist ideas which were circulating at the time the novel was written. These ideas are expressed by the effect of de-humanization that mechanical work has on