n this and the net four chapters of art , we will eamine the vari ous ways genre has been defined and used historically and current ly in literary theory, Systemic unctional inguistics what is often called the “Sydney school” of genre study, historicalcorpus linguis tics, English for Specific urposes, and hetorical enre Studies what is often termed “orth merican” genre study, with the goal of tracing how this dynamic, interrelated history has informed current understandings and syntheses see for eample the discussion of the Brazilian tradition in Chapter of genre and its implications for writ ing instruction and writing program development. Certainly, an entire book, let alone a few chapters, will not be able to capture the comple ity of this history in all the areas in which genre theory has played a significant role. Brian altridge, for eample, has described the impor tant work on genre done in folklore studies and linguistic anthropol ogy, while ick ltman and Steve eale have eamined genre in film studies. n the following chapters, we will instead describe the range of ways genre has been understood, synthesized, and used, over time, in those areas of study that have had the most impact on the study and teaching of writing literary, linguistic, and rhetoricalsociological genre traditions. n understanding of these traditions will help situate various genre approaches and reveal their analytical and pedagogical possibilities, which arts and will take up in more detail. The traditions we eamine illustrate a range of pedagogical and an alytical traectories, from tetual traectories that eamine genres’ for mal features for purposes of classification, description, andor teaching to contetual traectories that eamine how genres reflect, shape and enable participants to engage in particular social and linguistic events, including how genres mediate social and linguistic events in ways that reproduce social activities and relations, how genres relate to larger so cial structures in ways that allow for crosscultural analysis, and how genres can be used as forms of resistance and change. This range—