ABSTRACT
In recent years, various critics have noted how contemporary American writers are turning to popular genre forms in their work. However, few have adequately addressed how this turn affects the story of literary history. Through close readings of Jennifer Egan’s metafictional gothic novel, The Keep, and Colson Whitehead’s post-apocalyptic zombie horror novel, Zone One, this article argues that this recent trend reflects a longer process I am calling genrefication. I begin by analysing how The Keep updates the gothic to speak to contemporary concerns, specifically digital communications technology. Egan’s text also thematises how the formal limits of genres enable affective experiences for the reader. It then turns to Whitehead’s contrasting depiction of genre, one which complicates Egan’s ideas somewhat. Drawing on the work of John Fiske, I contend that Zone One shows how popular forms develop in relation to power structures, and how the recent turn to genre can be seen as what Fiske calls a ‘micropolitics’ of resistance. Through readings of these two texts, I argue that genrefication not only accounts for the recent turn to popular genres but also serves as a productive framework to discuss the gradual encroachment of genre into literary criticism.
