GENRE THEORY #4 - Amy J.Devitt

Amy J.Devitt is an English and Rhetorical professor.

She states (Wiki entry on Genre studies)

Scholars generally recognize the restrictions placed on works that have been classified as a certain genre. However, viewing genre as a rhetorical device gives the author and the reader more freedom and "allows for choices." Genres are not free-standing entities, but are actually intimately connected and interactive amongst themselves. Rhetorical genre recognizes that genres are generated by authors, readers, publishers, and the entire array of social forces that act upon a work at every stage of its production.

Comparing with Chandler:

This recognition does not make the taxonomy of texts easy. Chandler points out that very few works have all the characteristics of the genre in which they participate. Also, due to the interrelatedness of genres, none of them is clearly defined at the edges, but rather fade into one another. Genre works to promote organization, but there is no absolute way to classify works, and thus genre is still problematic and its theory still evolving.

Further reading:
http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/WEPOFall2011/Amy%20J.%20Devitt%20Generalizing%20about%20Genre.pdf