Abstract
The author considers the extent to which genre defiance is caught between typification and emergence. To what extent must atypical rhetorical actions mobilize socially recognizable types? Examining Amazon.com product reviews that deliberately defy genre expectations—and thus the market—in product reviews provides a case study to investigate genre defiance. We learn that rhetors cannot move into some kind of “genre-free” zone, but they can defy genre expectations using satire, parody, and reflexivity. Even genre defiance happens in relatively typified ways, which actually enables rhetors like defiant Amazon.com reviewers to reconstitute rhetorical situations and thus call for more fitting and recognizable responses to perceived exigencies.
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Basgier, C. (2017). Atypical Rhetorical Actions: Defying Genre Expectations on Amazon.com. In: Miller, C., Kelly, A. (eds) Emerging Genres in New Media Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40295-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40295-6_10
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