On genre chains

Abstract

In this essay we discuss genre chains, a specific grouping of discursive genres characterized by the systematic and necessary passage of a genre into other(s). Based on Swales’ (2004) Sociorethoric and Fairclough’s (2001a, 2003) Critical Discourse Analysis, we search for criteria for the characterization of genre chains, as well as for their classification. We propose to consider two specific types of genre chains: a simple one, in which all genres are produced under a single institutional scope, and a complexified one, when other institutional domains branch from a preexisting simple genre chain.