“‘A Sermon in the Midst of a Smutty Tale’: Blending in Genres of Speech, Writing and Literature.”
Sinding M (2012)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2012
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Edited Volumes: Cognitive Literary Studies: Current Themes and New Directions
Series: Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture
City/Town: Austin, TX
Pages Range: 145-61
ISBN: 978-0-292-75442-3
URI: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/jaecog
Abstract
Genre mixture is central to genre theory, in both literary and discourse studies. I characterize genres as multidimensional schemas integrating frames for action, situation, and discourse. Blending theory, as a model of the interaction of schemas, can clarify genre mixture and help to connect these fields. Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy exemplifies Bakhtin’s view of the early novel cannibalizing extraliterary genres. Sterne framed his famous “Abuses of Conscience” sermon in four genre contexts: first, as the annual assize sermon at York Minster (1750); second, as a six-penny pamphlet (1750); third, integrated into Tristram Shandy (1760); fourth, in a collection of his sermons
(1760). These productions vary considerably in purpose, rhetorical situation, and audience response. Notably, Tristram and Sterne’s sermons were great but mixed successes. The clash of the pious genre in the profane story, and Sterne’s attribution of his sermons to his comic alter-ego Mr. Yorick, prompted both denunciation and praise. I compare the blending and framing involved in the novel with the other cases, to examine how different conceptual networks produce different categorizations, meanings, and responses. I reflect on principles of genre blending relating the sermon to the book as a whole.
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APA:
Sinding, M. (2012). “‘A Sermon in the Midst of a Smutty Tale’: Blending in Genres of Speech, Writing and Literature.”. In Isabel Jaén, Julien Simon (Eds.), Cognitive Literary Studies: Current Themes and New Directions. (pp. 145-61). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
MLA:
Sinding, Michael. "“‘A Sermon in the Midst of a Smutty Tale’: Blending in Genres of Speech, Writing and Literature.”." Cognitive Literary Studies: Current Themes and New Directions. Ed. Isabel Jaén, Julien Simon, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2012. 145-61.
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