Passage Discussion

[JenniferK632]

Thank you in advance!!!

[dmitry]

Passage A:

P1: Borges provides new view of readers: detective fiction has created readers who read with suspicion.
P2: Author and Borges share a view: reader participation is essential, so the way that works are read defines the genre.

Passage B:

P1: Author's view of how to categorize genres: not by theme, but by reading protocol (how the reader interacts with the text).
P2: Recommendation for critics in accordance with this view: we should look for rhetorical figures (elements of the writing) that work with the reading protocols for that genre. Examples: poetry, sci-fi.

These two passages are quite similar scale-wise. If we see the two sides as "place works in genres based on themes (fighting crime, romantic love, defeating the dark lord, etc.)" and "place works in genres depending on the stance readers typically take in reading them," both authors are squarely in the second camp. The main difference is in how the authors present and use this idea.

Author A centers the action around Borges's view of detective fiction, then builds up to the general view that both passages share. Author B articulates the view on their own, then goes on to suggest how we can use this view to look critically at different literary genres. (Note that this difference of order, genre--theory vs. theory--genre, shows up in question 16.)