ABSTRACT
All forms of artistic mimesis, for that matter all aspects of human communication in general, are subject to generic conventions. Our generic considerations may, like our use of language, be so thoroughly assimilated as to function unconsciously, but our presentation, understanding and interpretation of any mimetic and communicative act is affected by genre, whether the medium be speech, literature, music, film, dance or anything else. Hence Hans Robert Jauss’s influential notion of a generic ‘horizon of expectations’.1 Genre is most often discussed in connection with literature and film, but very little thought is needed to reveal its presence in a variety of other forms; even architectural and musical styles are recognized through generic conventions.2 As Dudley North observed in the seventeenth century: ‘Muƒick hath its Anthems, Pavens, Fanteƒies, Galliards, Courantoes, Ayres, Sarabands, Toyes, Cromatiques, &c. And Verƒes have their Hymmes, Tragedies, Satyres, Heroiques, Sonets, Odes, Songs, Epigrams, Diƒtiques, and Strong lines, which are their Cromatiques’.3
