genre criticism

GENRE CRITICISM

• Genre criticism is a method within rhetorical criticism for analyzing speeches and writing according to the symbolic artifacts they contain. In rhetoric, the theory of genre provides a means to classify and compare artifacts of communication and to assess their effectiveness and/or contribution to a community. By grouping artifacts with others of similar formal features or rhetorical exigencies, rhetorical critics can shed light on how authors use or flout conventions in order to meet their needs. Genre criticism has thus become one of the main methodologies within rhetorical criticism.
• involves form and structure

THE FARMER - Carol Boston Weatherford

A plot of weeds,
An old grey mule,
Hot sun and sweat,
On a bright Southern day,
Strong stern papa
Under a Straw hat,
Plowing and planting
His Whole life away.
His back bone is forged
Of African iron
And red Georgia Day


CRITICISM:

In poetry, it uses symbolism also.
In this poem "THE FARMER", we can use the phrase "The farmer" as a symbol of the proud African culture and the south.
While the Last two lines describe the farmer but link him to his African ancestors in Africa in his fellow southerners.
What we did is an example of a genre criticism because we focus on the form and the structure, in this case we use the poem as our criticism. we found out that it is really a poem in a sense that it somehow use a symbol.
And it has a pattern of lines 4-4-4-6-5-5-5-5-5-6-5. is this a pattern? :)