Para uma concepção ampliada de cadeia de gêneros

Abstract

This research presents a review of the concept of genre chains from their origins in Bakhtin (2000 [1953]) to the discussion of the criteria proposed by Fairclough (2001a [1992], 2003) and Swales (2004) for its characterization. For these authors, genre chains is a systematic grouping of genres that are a regular transformation necessary, predictable and, consequently, chronological one genre to another. From the empirical analysis of genre chains located in the academic-educational range, we suggest a distinction between simple and complex chains. In the first, all the genres that constitute it would be produced in a single institutional framework, the linear arrangement would reveal aspects of the functioning of the activities of individual institutions. At this point, the single chains associate the concept of discipline thought by Foucault (2008c [1975]), since the establishment of a single chain aims at the regular institutional practices. The complex chains, in turn, are offshoots of a single chain through a link with genres produced in areas outside institutions. In this case, through the analysis of school advertisements, we find that single chains of a particular institution are actually complexified by generic practices of others, motivated by the ongoing hegemonic struggle. Also, we realized that the complexity of a single chain is restricted to areas that institutions shall practice mutual relationship of intercontextuality (MEURER, 2004). Finally, we claim that a genre chain is actually a discursive part of a chain practices in which discursive and non-discursive elements enter into its constitution.