Genre as a way to understand history

In “Genre as Social Action,” Miller argues that “a rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish” (152).  These rhetorical actions are inherently a function of the rhetorical situation.  Furthermore, similar situations recur through time, prompting similar action.  

Before continuing, I think it’s important to note that Miller is not merely attempting to propose what constitutes genre, but something much deeper.  The understanding of genre as typified rhetorical actions based in recurrent situations provides insight into the character of a culture, past or present.  

Here’s why.  

Examining recurrence is at the heart of understanding history.  However, what recurs is not the material situation.  The exact people, places, or objects in a situation are unique and isolated by time; they cannot recur.  Nor can a perception of a situation recur.  All people perceive things differently.

Situations are not independent of human interference.  According to Miller, “Before we can act, we must interpret the indeterminate material environment; we define, or “determine”, a situation” (156).  We give meaning to physical stimuli.  The meaning results in action. 

Situations are simply “social constructs” built using past experiences, or ‘types’, to define a situation.  Thus, “we create recurrence, analogies, similarities.  What recurs is not a material situation but our construal of a type” (Miller 157).  

This is in stark contrast to Bitzer’s materialist view of recurrence.  I think Bitzer thought of recurrence as something whose path cannot be altered or influenced by humans, only responded to.  Miller is saying that every situation ever encountered by humans (history) arose exactly as function of human interpretation. 

Situations, I guess, are subconscious self-fulfilling prophecies.  If we determine situation, then exigence “must be seen as social motive.”  Thus to classify a rhetorical work on the basis of its recurrent situation is to classify the work on the basis of social motive, and subsequent social action.  Understanding these attributes clearly delves into psyche of time period the work was created and aids in understanding why history formed the way it did.