Modern Genre Theory

Modern Genre Theory

Introduction

Andrew Judd, Modern Genre Theory: An Introduction for Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2024).

The following summary of the book will focus especially on its application to Psalms studies.

For more about Andrew Judd, see www.andyjudd.com. For his recently published PhD thesis, see Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory.

Summary

For the last one hundred years, Psalms studies have been shaped by the pioneering work of Hermann Gunkel. Gunkel gave special attention to the genres of the Psalms, classifying each psalm as either a hymn, a communal complaint, an individual complaint, an individual thanksgiving song, or as some other minor or mixed genre. See especially his book Introduction to the Psalms. Even today, many scholars continue to use Gunkel's categories.

Judd argues that Gunkel's approach to genre is outdated and, in many ways, misguided. He claims that modern genre theory offers helpful correctives to this traditional approach. The purpose of his book is to introduce modern genre theory into the field of biblical studies. The summary on the back of the back of the book begins, "Genre theory has experienced a renaissance in the last thirty years, but biblical studies has been left in the dark ages of rigid taxonomies and stubborn essentialism. The Bible deserves better. This book offers students in biblical studies an accessible but comprehensive introduction to modern genre theory, providing access to literary tools for understanding how writers and readers use genre to make meaning." In the first part of the book, Judd describes the theory (chapters 1-4), and in the second part, he applies its tenets to various biblical genres (chapters 5-12).

Outline

1. Gunkel's Home Brew: Form Criticism and Why It Needs to Die
2. Death and Taxonomies: The Need for Historical Context
3. Genre is Power: The Need for Social Context
4. The Boomerang Test: Playing the Right Game with Scripture
5. Good Old Slaveowners: Reading Narratives, Not Fairy Tales, in Genesis
6. Let's Get Tactical: Judges as Horror Film
7. Why Can't You Just Say What You Mean? Reading Poetry without Ruining Poetry
8. But What Kind of True? Genesis 1 and the Poetry Spectrum
9. How to Start a Cult: Reading Apocalypse as Apocalypse
10. Wisdom: Where Can't It Be Found?
11. More Than Biography: What Is a Gospel?
12. You're So Vain: You Probably Think This Letter Is to You

Key Concepts

Genre

Judd defines "genre" as "relatively stable conventions that writers and readers use to make meaning in certain contexts but not others" (256).

To explore the idea of genre, he uses the analogy of a game. "Genres tell us which game we are playing... Usually... the goal of reading is to play along with the writer... and genres help us do that by specifying which rules we can expect everyone to be playing by" (27, italics original). "If reading is like a game, then it helps at the outset to know the rules: what counts as a goal, what equipment we should bring, and what potential moves we can expect from the other players" (36). The elements of a text that are regulated by genre include formal features, content (e.g., themes, images, moods), and social context.

Modern Genre Theory

"Modern genre theory" is, according to Judd, a "broad term for more recent genre theories, which typically approach genres diachronically, placing them within their historical (tenets 1 to 6) and social (tenets 7-12) context" (256). Judd summarizes modern genre theory with the following twelve tenets (here adapted):

1. Texts are promiscuous, sometimes participating in multiple genres (e.g., The Mandalorian as a "space western"; Frankenstein)
2. Genres are relatively stable conventions, like games
3. Genres are fuzzy around the edges and solid at the core (think in terms of prototypes) (cf. is Die Hard a Christmas movie?; what is real country music?)
4. Each genre invites us to play a different reading-game, with different experiences, roles, goals, and resources.
5. Genres are about readers as much as writers
6. Genres can regulate all sorts of things about a text (including formal features, content, and social context)
7. Genres are recurring responses to recurring situations
8. Genres are regular ways of getting stuff done with words
9. Genres reflect and create the world we take for granted
10. Genres always work for someone
11. Genres don't live alone
12. The ball is always in the reader's court

The Boomerang Test

"our most useful and underappreciated tool for working out whether we have got the genre of a text right" (67)

"Take up your guess about the kind of genre your text falls into, give it a throw, see what comes back. If the payoffs suggest it doesn't work, try again" (69).

Key Arguments

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[Death to form criticism]: Traditional form criticism (à la Gunkel) needs to die.
 + <Modern genre theory>: Traditional form criticism is inconsistent with some of the important findings of modern genre theory.
  + <Rigid definition of genre>: Form criticism treats genres as rigid, immutable categories, whereas modern genre theory claims that genres are relatively stable conventions that change over time (Tenet 2), and the boundaries of genres are not always clearly defined (Tenet 3).
   + ["Specific, strictly observed"]: "One may only speak of a 'genre' when one first meets very specific, strictly observed stipulations" (Gunkel and Begrich 1998, 15).
  + <Rigid categorization of psalms>: Form criticism often tries to pin a specific psalm to a single genre, but modern genre theory claims that a single text can participate in multiple genres at the same time (Tenet 1).
   + ["Grouping the entire material"]: "By grouping the entire material by genres... we achieve firm standards that enable us to arrange the entire myriad world of piety expressed in the psalms according to their own disposition" (Gunkel and Begrich 1998, 18).
 + <Problematic method>: Form criticism, as practiced by Gunkel, is based on "assumptions about race, culture, religion, and history that few would accept today..." (8) e.g., "assumptions about the way cultures and religions evolve in history" (9).
  + ["In earliest times..."]: E.g., "In earliest times the individual was proportionally less forthcoming with his personal piety. In later times, the individual was empowered by the genres available at the time and attempted to express something personal with them" (Gunkel and Begrich 1998, 19).
 + <Lack of evidence>: Traditional form criticism has often led to precise reconstructions of the life-settings behind specific genres that are based on little evidence. (Cf. Gunkel's comment: "we must present this cultic occasion as precisely as possible" \[1998, 16\]).
 + <Pre-literary focus>: Traditional form criticism focuses on the pre-literary genres that stand behind the biblical text rather than on the final form of the text itself.

Impact

Important ideas

The following list of ideas aims to apply some of Judd's insights to Psalms studies in particular:

• A psalm can participate in multiple genres (cf. Tenet 1). For example, Ps 89, at the highest level participates in the genre of "poetry." Furthermore, the superscription identifies it as a maskil. In terms of modern (etic) genre categories, Ps 89 participates in the "praise" genre, the "royal prophecy" genre, and the genre of "lament" or "accusation." There is no good reason to think that the "praise" parts of the psalm (vv. 2-3, 6-19) were originally separate from the "royal prophecy" parts of the psalm (vv. 4-5, 20-38), since these parts of the psalm are highly integrated. This kind of blending of genres is to be expected. Judd likens it to Conceptual Blending.
• Psalm genres are relatively stable (cf. Tenet 2). This idea means that we should be able to identify genres with some success. Gunkel's work on genre (see Einleitung in die Psalmen), refined by Westerman (see Praise and Lament in the Psalms) and others, is a good place to start. As Waltke has noted, the basic distinction of "praise," "thanksgiving," and "petition" has some basis in 1 Chronicles 16:4—"Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the LORD, to invoke (וּלְהַזְכִּיר), to thank (וּלְהוֹדוֹת), and to praise (וּלְהַלֵּל) the LORD, the God of Israel" (ESV).
• Psalm genres are relatively stable (cf. Tenet 2). The lack of complete stability means that the identification of genre should account for variation across time. Genres evolve over time. For poems in the Psalter, written across a span of centuries, this is especially significant. We should expect only relative stability.
• Psalm genres are fuzzy around the edges and solid at the core (Tenet 3). We should identify the core of each genre as well as prototypical participants in that genre. For example, Psalm 3 might be a prototypical petition/lament. Psalm 4, by contrast, although it might exhibit some core elements of the petition genre, is not a prototypical example.
• Psalm genres can regulate all sorts of things about a text (including formal features, content, and social context) (Tenet 6). This three-fold grouping of genre-regulated elements is similar to Gunkel's description of each genre in terms of "forms," "thoughts/moods," and "setting in life." As we identify the core of each genre, we should pay attention to each of these three areas. Our layer-by-layer analysis prepares us well for this task:
  • Form: Macrosyntax, Poetic Structure, Speech Act Analysis
  • Content (thoughts/moods): Story Behind, Emotional Analysis, Semantic domains
  • Setting in life: Story Behind
• Psalm genres are responses to recurring situations (Tenet 7). Our "Story Behind the Psalm," specifically our "Background events," becomes relevant here. The "praise" genre, for example, is a response to a recurring situation, broadly defined as, "Someone experiences God's power, goodness, etc."
• Psalm genres are regular ways of getting stuff done with words (Tenet 8). Intended perlocution (which we track at Speech Act Analysis) will be an important part of identifying genres.
• The social aspect of genres makes Participant Analysis relevant.

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