Perception and Recognition of Textual Genres: A Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

North American Writing Studies (naws) has for more than 30 years found Miller’s theory of genre as social action (1984) useful and productive. That theorizing is much indebted to the phenomenological tradition, as Miller’s theory itself is based on Alfred Schutz’s concept of typification (1989), drawn from phenomenological sociology, which Schutz in large measure founded. Similarly, current theories of embodied cognition are based on phenomenology, inspired by Merleau-Ponty, and his theory of embodied perception (2012). In this paper I put into dialog two recent formulations of the phenomenological perspective on writing: Charles Bazerman’s theory of literate action (2013) and emerging theory on writing as embodied cognition (Dryer & Russell, 2017; Römmer-Nossek, 2015; Russell, 2017), in order to suggest a connection with a third perspective, information processing cognitive theories, in the tradition of John R. Hayes, which emphasize cognitive load limits. The connection is evolutionary cognitive load theory (eclt), which measures the effects of cognitive load under conditions where participants can utilize functional systems developed prior to the acquisition of literacy, the inactive, embodied habits they have learned from the womb, in order to perform literacy tasks more efficiently, often surpassing the limits of working memory unaided by them.