The French term “genre” is derived from the same Latin root as “general”, “genus”, “gender”, “genesis”, “generate”, “genius” and “gene”. In modern French, as well as meaning “literary genre”, it also means “of the same sort”, “kind”, “gender”, especially linguistically, and “genus”, biological kind. Etymologically and pragmatically the word originates in the idea of discerning a broader pattern or category in elementary phenomena. In the sphere of texts and communications, genre might be said to be a recognised pattern of discourse, a tacit or explicit convention about what kinds of words and representations belong together. At the level of everyday communication there exist such genres as “speeches”, “informal conversations”, “business letters”, “telephone enquiries”, “insults”, “shopping lists”, “technical instructions”, “arguments”, and a whole host of other kinds of genre, a fact which has become increasingly clear...
2889 words
Citation: Cobley, Paul. "Genre, Genre Theory". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=464, accessed 05 December 2025.]
