Narrative and Genre Analysis
Narrative and genre analysis study how stories are structured and how recurring text types arise as typified responses to recurring social situations.
Definition
Narrative and genre analysis is the study of how discourse is organized into stories and into conventionalized genres that recur as patterned responses to recurrent communicative situations.
Scope
This topic covers two related strands of discourse study. Narrative analysis examines the structure of stories, from Labov and Waletzky's model of oral narrative to the social functions of storytelling. Genre analysis treats recurring forms of discourse, including Swales's move analysis of academic genres and the rhetorical genre theory that defines genre as typified social action. The interaction of genre and narrative in everyday and institutional discourse is included.
Core questions
- What structural elements compose a narrative?
- How do genres emerge from and respond to social situations?
- How does Swales's move analysis reveal the organization of academic texts?
- What functions does storytelling perform in interaction and society?
Key concepts
- genre as social action
- move analysis
- discourse community
- narrative clause and evaluation
- orientation, complication, resolution, coda
Key theories
- Genre as social action
- Miller argues that genres are best defined not by form but by the typified rhetorical action they perform in response to recurrent situations, making genre a key category linking discourse to social life.
- Move analysis and narrative structure
- Swales models genres such as the research article introduction as sequences of communicative moves, while Labov and Waletzky model oral narratives through ordered components from orientation to coda.
History
Sociolinguistic narrative analysis began with Labov and Waletzky's 1967 study of oral personal-experience stories. Genre study developed along two tracks: applied-linguistic move analysis, codified in Swales's 1990 Genre Analysis, and North American rhetorical genre theory, launched by Miller's 1984 essay redefining genre as social action. Both reshaped the analysis of academic, professional, and everyday discourse.
Debates
- Form versus action in defining genre
- Theorists differ on whether genres should be identified by recurring formal and structural features or, following Miller, by the social action they accomplish, a distinction with consequences for how genres are taught and analyzed.
Key figures
- John Swales
- Carolyn Miller
- William Labov
- Joshua Waletzky
Related topics
Seminal works
- swales1990
- miller1984
- labov1967
Frequently asked questions
- What does it mean to call genre 'social action'?
- It means a genre is defined by the recurring situation it addresses and the action it performs—such as a eulogy honoring the dead—rather than merely by its formal features. Genres are thus tied to the social purposes they serve.