A Note on Genre

[Thomas Eckhardt]

> I agree 1000% with David. However, for me, the picaresque is
> parodied in the Menippean Satire V.. The Profane plot is
> picaresque, Profane the picaro, not doubt about it, but
> there is good reason to read these a picaresque parody.
>
> Now, this is not an argument about Genre anymore.

I certainly agree with both of you that every work of literature - at
least every interesting work of literature - crosses the boundaries of
lit crit definitions of genre or feels quite at home in various
"Aristotelian boxes" simultaneously. Perhaps it might be helpful to use
the notion of a "primary organizing principle", as Abrams put it, or of
a "prevalent mode", as Frye would perhaps have called it, or a
"dominant", which would be McHale's attempt to come to terms with the
"ingraspable phantom" of literature. Anyways, I thought the discussion
was rather illuminating, and your observation that V. might be seen as a
parody of the picaresque only adds to this impression.

Thomas