ABSTRACT
One of the operations included in philological inquiries is the restoration of etymologies, built up of linguistic units enduring through ages, languages, meanings, usages and contexts. 2 The following essay attempts a possible deployment of an etymology of the lingual unit ‘genre’. Our trail will be guided by two stations in the long and extended history of this etymon: First, the Aristotelian origins of the etymon ‘genre’ are reconsidered; second, attention is given to the presence of the same etymon in the vocabulary of modern art criticism. Working within a comparative framework, this essay tries to create a trail between literary artistic and philosophical discourses. In all three domains, ‘genre’ appears as a classificatory instrument, and it is as a classificatory instrument that genre is addressed here. In the second anthology of ‘The Making of the Humanities’, Mats Malm portrayed the chart of relations between literary genre theory, rhetorical motives and emotional figures, as well as demonstrated the affinities between literary genre theory and theory of painting. 3 The present essay joins this trail and tries to ponder about the methodic tenor and relevancy of generic classification to the humanities.
