ABSTRACT

The author assumes, according to Bowker and Star, that a workable system of classification has the following properties: first, there are consistent, unique classificatory principles in operation', such as atomic weight or genetic sequencing. Second, 'the categories are mutually exclusive'; and third, 'the system is complete'. As Schaeffer puts it: The model of taxonomy that the author has called 'Aristotelian' assumes that there can be something like an exhaustive classification which can place any member of a given population into one and only one class. Let us now turn to the other major theorisation of genre in antiquity, Aristotle's Poetics, which begins with Aristotle saying that he will speak not only of poetry in general but also of its species and their respective capacities. He rejects Genette's reduction of genre to its thematic dimension. Here he draws on two principles enunciated in the later writings of the Russian Formalists.