ABSTRACT
Of all literary forms the class whose continuance probably matters most is genre. In other words, genre theory needs radical revision before it can be considered to provide a literary model with historical dimension. It might be more empiric to begin with changes in the dignity of genres themselves, rather than of their heroes. A modest but in the long term necessary preliminary is to explore the limited range of formal processes by which any individual genre can change, when numberless historical factors and authorial decisions decree that it should do so. Perhaps the sequence of phases is best described as a sequence of relations between genre, mode, and abstract formulation. There are limits, not only upon what the people have access to, but also upon what they can assimilate and reintroduce into the cultural tradition by own efforts.
