Dr Natalia Rulyova

It is proposed to develop a genre studies network which will stimulate new debate across disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and international boundaries via a series of six workshops. This project is conceived as a stepping stone towards developing the first UK Centre for Genre Studies. Since antiquity the concept of genre which was first developed by Plato and Aristotle has gone through numerous translations from one culture to another, one medium to another, or from one discipline to another. In the process of translation, genres can transform, mutate, adapt to new conditions. Sometimes it leads to the emergence of new genres which usually appear as a result of cross-fertilisation and hybridisation. However, the relevance of the concept has never disappeared and if anything it has grown, especially in the context of new media in which humans have to process information faster than ever before. Genre, as taxonomy, is a helpful tool for creating meaning and making sense out of reality. Hence, the notion of genre needs to be reviewed in light of recent technological developments and the advent of Twitter, facebook, the blogosphere and other media. Since the classic triad of genres was defined (epic, tragic, comedy), the number of genres has grown exponentially to include new literary, music, cinematic, television, media, and other genres. Genre is a fundamentally cross-disciplinary category, which needs to be studied with the help of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches.

The pilot workshop Genre in Contemporary Russian Culture, which was funded by CEELBAS and held at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, the University of Birmingham (27 June 2011) has successfully demonstrated the fruitfulness of genre studies when applied to the study of one culture. The current project aims to extend genre studies approaches to European cultures. The six proposed workshops will focus on six main themes: theories of genre and methodologies applied to the study of genre, genre in translation, genre and new technologies, genre and gender, genre and the canons of representations, communicating the genre (the author, the text and the audience). All workshops will draw on the expertise of leading UK and international scholars from across the fields of modern foreign languages, literary, cultural, media, film and gender studies, the arts and visual culture. Academics will be encouraged to develop multidisciplinary approaches to genre in broader cultural contexts and to work in cooperation with practitioners who will contribute to discussion of genre at roundtables. To attract broader public interest, the series will be opened by the talk given by Sam Leith, an award-nominated UK writer and columnist, who, in his recent book You Talkin' to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama (Profile Books, 2011) touches on the issues of genre in an enlightening and humorous fashion. The guest speaker at the last workshop will be the eminent Russian detective writer and translator Boris Akunin whose recent novel Quest was written in the new genre of an online book or a 'book-game', as the author calls it (see http://www.elkniga.ru/akunin/).

The project will have a dedicated webpage which will promote all events organised as part of the project and provide links to other relevant activities. All project developments will also be disseminated via Twitter. Among other project outputs, there will be the selected podcasts of academic papers and talks given by guest speakers, a special issue on genre studies in an academic refereed journal, 'Notes for Teachers on Genre' disseminated via the webpage, and a conference paper written by the principal investigator and published on the project webpage. Among potential beneficiaries of the project there will be library professionals and readers (workshops 1,2,6), school teachers (1) and gallery professionals (5), translators (4), new media practitioners (3), and the Russian Diaspora (6).

1. Library Professionals. A report, commissioned by JISC and SCONUL, identifies challenges that libraries face in 'a user environment increasingly dominated by high expectations around ease of delivery, unhindered access to resources and their integration with user-generated content'. (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/04/lms.aspx) The report finds that 'libraries are not yet exploiting intelligence about user habits to enhance their position in the information value chain'. (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/resourcediscovery/lmsstudy.pdf) Research into genre as taxonomy will help better understand user behaviour, i.e. how users search for types of texts, using genre as a defining characteristic. The project will foster a needed dialogue between academics and library professionals in the Midlands and help find new creative ways to use existing resources.
2. Gallery Professionals. Digital and Internet art (or web-based art) have challenged some fundamental concepts which are at the core of traditional art, such as authorship, authenticity and some others. Within these new digital art forms old genres have mutated and new ones have emerged. The project aims to explore not only theoretical but practical implications of the appearance of new genres and modes of representation for galleries and viewers.
3. The Diaspora and translators. Translating cultures is an emerging theme identified by AHRC. This project focuses on one aspect of this theme, which is here defined as translating genre. Project findings will be directly relevant to practicing translators and members of the Diaspora who regularly negotiate meaning in a target language, and genre mutations and transformations play an important part in this process of meaning construction (the ways in which these two groups of beneficiaries will be targeted are described separately and in detail in 'Pathways to Impact').
4. Educators. According to David Russel (http://www.public.iastate.edu/~drrussel/at%26genre/at%26genre.html) genre could be defined not only as a set of definable formal features of the text but also 'in relation to systems or networks of social activity and action'. In the latter sense, genres can be understood as 'forms of life, ways of being, frames for social action... environments for learning and teaching'. The project will provide an opportunity for school teachers and lecturers to explore genre as an educational tool that can be effectively used in the classroom. There is a need for it, especially in order to increase a repertoire of enquiry-based teaching and learning tools. In addition, the workshops will help develop new ways of teaching genre as a topic.
5. Readers and the wider public. The project will fulfil the need for increasing awareness of readers and viewers of existing preconceptions about relationship between genre and gender. Participants will be invited to discuss whether, in their view, there are female and male modes of writing, whether different genres speak to different genders, whether their choice of literature and film is determined by their gender or the gender of the people surrounding them. The discussion will feed back to academic research about gender and genre (the ways in which these two groups of beneficiaries will be targeted are described separately and in detail in 'Pathways to Impact').
6. New media practitioners. Preliminary research into genre in the Russian blogosphere by PI has revealed that bloggers' choice of genre online is often in correspondence with a theme of their message. For instance, anxiety caused by the uncertainly about the future of Russia facing internal and external pressure is regularly expressed by bloggers in the genre of futuristic fiction or science fiction. Further research is needed into genre on the internet which would have direct impact on new media practitioners and internet users.