
The Architext
An Introduction
Gerard Genette(Author)
University of California Press
Published on 8. January 1992
Book
Paperback/Softback
95 pages
978-0-520-07661-7 (ISBN)
Description
In this essential theoretical essay, Gerard Genette asserts that the object of poetics is not the text, but the architext-the transcendent categories (literary genres, modes of enunciation, and types of discourse, among others) to which each individual text belongs. In seeking to link these categories in a system embracing the entire field of literature, Western poetics has divided literature into three kinds: dramatic, epic, and lyric. This division, generally accepted since the eighteenth century, has been wrongly attributed to Aristotle with great detriment to the development of poetics. Here Genette disassembles this burdensome triad by retracing its gradual construction and distinguishes among the architextual categories that this division has long obscured. In so doing, Genette lays a firm foundation for future theorists of literary forms.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-07661-7 (9780520076617)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Gerard Genette is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Jane E. Lewin received her Ph.D. in English from Brown University and has translated Genette's Narrative Discourse and Narrative Discourse Revisited.