Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GENRE

A classification of literary composition characterized by particular elements of form and content.

One of the crucial insights of form criticism in biblical studies was the realization of the importance of genre recognition for textual interpretation. One cannot understand a particular text without at least some implicit knowledge of the genre to which that text belongs. There is no literary creation ex nihilo. Every writer who desires to communicate with an audience must draw on previously known literary conventions of one type or another. The writer starts with a specific genre or set of genres in mind. He or she may work through the conventions associated with these genres, transform them in important ways, or even totally explode them, but use them he or she must. These same genre conventions provide the reader or hearer with an initial frame of reference, some means by which to begin to extract meaning from the text.

The legacy of form criticism has been less helpful in the conception of genre which it bequeathed to the field. In particular, the belief that genres, especially oral genres, tend to be relatively short and self-contained, pure, and originate from one particular setting in life has been called into question by contemporary genre theory. Genres, both oral and written, may be realized on many different scales and involve varying degrees of complexity; generic mixture and not purity of form is the norm, and not every instance of a particular genre need necessarily reflect one putative setting in life. Genres, once known, may be imitated and exploited in all kinds of ways and for all kinds of purposes which may or may not have anything to do with the genre’s ordinary setting in life. Finally, a looser concept of genre than that which has traditionally informed form criticism is to be encouraged, one which recognizes that all features, however informal, can become genre-linked and which is predicated on the notion of family resemblance instead of a more formal set theory.

F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GENRE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)