Week
6 Blog: Genre, The Adaptable Chameleon.
For years my teenage
daughter wrote religiously in her diary of the day’s events in her life, good
or bad. She wrote of love and romance, she went to a 'mixed' school, and of fear,
hate, loathing, being bullied about her weight and everything else you could
possibly think of. Today she writes on her Facebook page but not in the same
manner or completeness because she is aware that now her web based diary is not
a closely guarded personal inventory of her life events.
A diary whether
on line or not is a method of expressing yourself with style and form (Arielle
Van Luyn.2013.) and is in fact a form of genre. Another form of free print culture
is a blog (McNeill.2003.P319) where personal daily narratives plunge the reader
into the immediate events of a life or a blogger like me can attempt to link the
culture of genres to the 80’s band Culture Club.
Whilst
researching this topic I found a whole list of genres including literature,
music, drama and art. The most common aspect of the history of genres, in my
opinion, was the ability for them to adapt and regenerate themselves like a
chameleon over time and not only coexist with culture, but also define its very
components. Without genres it is impossible to communicate or iterate to your
intended audience or for that matter recapture your thoughts and feelings
without them falling into one genre or another, which brings me back to Culture
Club and the analogy that if I was to sing about genres’ it would be "Karma karma karma karma karma karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go."
References:
Karma Chameleon
lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
McNeill, L. (2011). Diary
2.0? A genre moves from page to screen.
Rowe. C. & Wyss. E.L. (Eds). Language and new media: Linguistic,
cultural and technological evolutions. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
Van Luyn, Arielle Dr.(2013)Lecture/Pod cast 6. James
Cook University. BA1002. Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of
Place. Cairns, Qld. 3 September, 2013.
With regards to posting online this can be seen as, "Leaned self-surveillance." (Turkle, 1995, p.248)In the light that most people can view any material that is posted online, but we don't always know who is looking at our content. A virtual panopticon.
ReplyDeleteIt could also be said that the diary has now evolved from on state to the other and that in this case the genre of a personal diary has evolved with its transfer to the internet.
On the whole though I really liked the entry, especially the connection to 80's pop culture.
References:
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York; America. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.