Here begins the Great Thread on #illicitgenres. I am reporting from a @uni_copenhagen symposium on illicit genres supported by @Carlsbergfondet. You can find the program for the conference here.
nors.ku.dk/english/calend…
nors.ku.dk/english/calend…
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet Introdutory speech by @TanyaKaroli and @MarieEBM, warning us that we are going to see fairly horrible examples during the days. That's what happens when genres are
"threatening communication, hate speech, grooming, defamations, harrasment, bribery, dogwhistling and bullying."
"threatening communication, hate speech, grooming, defamations, harrasment, bribery, dogwhistling and bullying."
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM However, @AmyDevitt1 is also in the room, so that makes the day infinitely better despite the awful nature of the topic at hand.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 And so is #AnneFreadman, so I can admire people all day. I love to admire people.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 #Illicitgenres have as a common distinguishing feature that they are societally unwelcome. They displease society and disrupt social relations (Karoli and Boisen-Møller speaking, me parroting - I'll be parroting all day, both days.)
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Illicit genres can be occluded and disguised through indrict wording, anonymity and metalinguistic re-naming practices. They hide behind the genre labels of other genres and try to mimic other genres - because they are illicit and are likely to get the speaker in trouble.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 The symposium is based on a larger project supported by the @Carlsbergfondet - it's all paid for by beer.
Have a beer!
And a Mads Mikkelsen.
Have a beer!
And a Mads Mikkelsen.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Tanya about threats. they
"counts as an attempt at intimidating someone by directly or indirectly communicating that they will be subject of a future harmful event, that the speaker is responsible for". (And the slide changed before I got the whole definition. is A fast speaker.)
"counts as an attempt at intimidating someone by directly or indirectly communicating that they will be subject of a future harmful event, that the speaker is responsible for". (And the slide changed before I got the whole definition. is A fast speaker.)
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 The Danish penal code highlights that the threat just has to be fit to cause fear, it does not need to have actually scared anyone or be intended to scare, for it to be illegal.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 There has been a rise in the number of reported threats over the last 3-4 years and a - less sharp - rise in convictions over threats in the same period.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 A difficulty in tagging up threats for linguistic analysis is that people threaten don't seem to pay a lot of attention to the correcty use of language, so there are many unique language variations that make the #genre hard to tag.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 A particularly interesting questions in relation to threats is that they invite a variety of different uptakes and that some of the most obvious uptakes are unwelcome. You want to scare the recipient, but you don't want to end up in jail.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 A bummer of a communication situation if you as me.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 You have one recipient, you want to react in a certain way, but if another possible recipient gets their hands on your utterance, you can be in deep trouble. So how do you secure the right uptake, and avoid the other.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 The problem of the wrong uptakes is a known challenge in genre theory, but in this version the stakes are extremely high.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 From the point of view of the legal system (Marie is talking now; less of a speed speaker than Tanya, my fingers are grateful) the question of how it is taken up by the legal system. If you want to convict you have to prove that the threat in question is, in fact, a threat.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 If the defendant succeeds in positing a threat as for instance "a joke" (genre labels are a discursive battle ground, remember) there is no threat legally speaking. And the defendant must be acquitted.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Marie and Tanya close. @AmyDevitt1 takes the floor for the first keynote. Her new title is "When Genres Break Bad. how to See, Name, and Sanction Illicit Communication". She describes her approach as high theory.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 She will try to reframe the topic from the point of view of Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS). The idea is that RGS can discuss
How we see genres
How we name genres
How we sanction genres.
How we see genres
How we name genres
How we sanction genres.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Genres are all kinds of communicative actions.
Composed by everyday writers.
Constructed through a shared rhetorical situation.
Working within a community.
Not just a set of textual regularities but social action. Ways to do things in the world.
Composed by everyday writers.
Constructed through a shared rhetorical situation.
Working within a community.
Not just a set of textual regularities but social action. Ways to do things in the world.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 (Yes, genre research grandmother Carolyn Miller hides somewhere in that description)
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Genres perform many kunds of cimmunicative actions from the everyday situation, to high oratory, to political action, to literary utterances. It moves from the very simple to the extremely complex.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 See a genre: Genres combine form and meaning into social actions.
Name a genre: Genres are identified by users of the genre.
Sanction: Genre are constructed by commities to serve their purposes.
Name a genre: Genres are identified by users of the genre.
Sanction: Genre are constructed by commities to serve their purposes.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 I am so happy that the naming of a genre gets to play a central role in two consecutive papers. Here's a thread on genre labels. It's tangential to today's topic, but it's full of jokes and great uptakes.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Amy throws a perfectly awful threat up on a slide and says,
"So we look at this and go: "Oh, that's a threat". You should hear the bemused sound of the "Oh". It completely defeats the threat. We are in very safe hands with Amy at the wheel. I love it.
"So we look at this and go: "Oh, that's a threat". You should hear the bemused sound of the "Oh". It completely defeats the threat. We are in very safe hands with Amy at the wheel. I love it.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 (Yes, I shall be fanboying a bit here. Bear with the cheerleader in me. These are very bright people.)
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Often the Illicit genres are what we may call - with John Swales (1996) - "occluded genres"; meaning genres that are hidden from public view. But Devitt claims that you have to see three different versions.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Confidential genres
Secret genres
Illicit genres
Secret genres
Illicit genres
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 They perform very different work. In the case of the illicit genres the actual utterances are not always occluded. A lot of threats are actually placed in the public sphere and intended to work in the public sphere.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Moving into uptake again. Everyone pays homage to Anne Freadman who is present. And a well deserved homage it is. The uptake is particularly interesting when it comes to illicit genres. Amy does not elaborate for now, but there's clearly a point there.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Returning to the second point the genre name.
Who gets to name genres?
Google searchers
Retailers
Critics
Authors
Who gets to name genres?
Google searchers
Retailers
Critics
Authors
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Professional communities - Devitt herself has studied the work of tax accountants here. Their own names for the kind of genres they write were remarkably stable.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Devitt, A. (1991). Intertextuality in Tax Accounting: Generic, Referential and Functional. In Bazerman & Paradis (Eds.), Dynamics of the Professions: Historical and Contemporary Studies in Writing in Professional Communities (pp. 291-303). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Slightly old, but still worth your time. Very much so!
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 A new set of people who get to name a genre
Users
Gatekeepers
Recipients
In genre terms recipients are actually a form of users, Devitt notes. A gnomic statement worthy of a long night of red wine and reflection, I might add.
Users
Gatekeepers
Recipients
In genre terms recipients are actually a form of users, Devitt notes. A gnomic statement worthy of a long night of red wine and reflection, I might add.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 The SANCTION of genre can lead to community condemnation
Legal prohibition
Social avoodiance of word
Action acoidance you those with social or other power
Social condemnation
Affective connection to shame.
Legal prohibition
Social avoodiance of word
Action acoidance you those with social or other power
Social condemnation
Affective connection to shame.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 Who is in the community of #illicitgenres? Is there a community of threateners? How do you learn to use an illicit genre? How do you recognize a genre?
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 There are more people tweeting from the conference. You can go and follow @timgrant123 for more.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 #Illicitgenres
Genre forems are hidden. but actions are still meaningful.
Conflict between users
Cultures construct genres that undermine dominant values of society.
Genre forems are hidden. but actions are still meaningful.
Conflict between users
Cultures construct genres that undermine dominant values of society.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 I type so fast, that I have reason to regret it is just monday and not #TypoThursaday.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Tanya is tweeting a bit from the symposium too.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Question about genres in the public sphere: When political leaders integrate threats into their public sphere, does it change the nature of illicit genres?
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Devitt ends her speech. Short round of discussion.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Interesting interventions by Lara Waters and Tammy Gales. Nothing like being in the presence of greatness.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Oh and others @timgrant123 pitches in, so does Anne Freadman. As much fun as you can have with horrible genres on a Monday morning.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 But I'd still like a fresh cup of coffee. And here comes the break.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 Next up Tammy A. Gales from Hofstra (@HofstraU).
Threatening contexts.
Threatening contexts.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU A linguistic perspective.
Direct and indirect speech acts. The difference between the direct and the indirect threat.
Direct and indirect speech acts. The difference between the direct and the indirect threat.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU With many illicit genres we don't want to "own" the speech act. The same statement "you'd better watch out if you know what's good for you", could be a warning or a threat.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Gales is a bit beside my own field, so I have to spend more energy following her. Very good, but slows the tweeter.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Works on a context question, a famous case where a contentious exchange ends (with?) the one person asking the other "How's David"; David being the other person's son. Now is this a threat or not? Does the utterer inquire about the situation of the son, whom he knows well ...
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Or does he threathen?
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Four cases. A harasser gets convicted, calls his victim and asks "What should I do to retaliate?" A threat based on the locution alone. The word "retaliate" does it.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Second one had the character of a warning, but didn't get the full context.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Third: An exchange between two men planning sexual assault, but never sent them to anyone. Not deemed a threat because of the lack of communication with the propose victim.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU Fourth a stalker (ex boyfriend of the victim) predicts something awful to happen to his victim's husband. This was deemed a threat (ie responsibility for future harm was put on the utterer) due to the context.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU A landmark case taken all the way to the US SCOTUS had a wide array of different threats, but always framed by a claim that the threats were fiction, and the first amendment was always mentioned. In the end the speaker was acquitted for these reasons.
@uni_copenhagen @Carlsbergfondet @TanyaKaroli @MarieEBM @AmyDevitt1 @timgrant123 @HofstraU As a #genre analyst I find this disturbing, because it basically empowers a classic bully move; framing the abuse as something else while clearly effecting the abuse on its victims.
Final slide. Is that a threat? asks Gales. It is, of course, but then again, it isn't.
The genre guy in me loves stuff like that. The utterance that performs the genre, but does in a way that defeats the effect of the genre in order to achieve the purpose of another genre: the joke. The audience clearly took it to be a joke - lots of laughter, not much shuddering.
Next up, Margaret Diekhuis-Kuiper: Risk Assessment-method for Threatening letters, called (RAT).
Working on Risk Indicators. charactersitics in threatening letter which are most linked to actual violent behavior.
The path from words to deeds so to speak. Can you see from a threatening letter whether there is actual danger?
Diekhuis-Kuiper is a forensic psychologist. I didn't know that there were such people. I am ignorant. Of course, there are such people.
Asks what are the characteristics of threatening letters?
So, threats are time-consuming and difficult to interpret without other document. Often you only have the threatening letter itself.
So, threats are time-consuming and difficult to interpret without other document. Often you only have the threatening letter itself.
Question: Which indicators are the most likely to lead to violence - even on the basis of a single text. Which characteristics in a leader seem to lead to criminal acts.
Two sets of letters, some criminal, some non-criminal. Some direct, some indirect. Some cases with several letters from the same person - shudders.
Most people who threaten do so to instill fear, and they often send only a single letter.
The speaker has made an evidence guide for assessing threats through Structured Professional Judgement (SPJ). Don't y'all just love a good acronym?
A threat assessment based on limited information. Aims to take well-founded follow up steps. Meaning - among other things who to protect, who is in no danger?
Procedure:
Collect information - timeline
Type of letter
Character of indicators present in the letter
Risk definition and scenarios
Management strategy.
Collect information - timeline
Type of letter
Character of indicators present in the letter
Risk definition and scenarios
Management strategy.
A contribution from our readers. Sort of lol in an awkward sort of way.
Diekhuis-Kuiper goes through some individual cases and shows how to characterize them. Fascinating.
Diekhuis-Kuiper doesn't remark on it directly, buy interestingly the two cases we've seen so far posit the writer as somehow the victim of the recipient and this justifies the threat.
I asked about it.
Apparently, Diekhuis-Kuiper answers, in many cases the threat is in a sense a cry for help (a new #genre) where the threatener projects their own problems on to the victim making them responsible for the threateners own marital problem, financial problems, ludomania, or whatever.
Anne Freadman asks about it as a question of threats being a claim of power from the powerless. Diekhuis-Kuiper confirms.
BTW Diekhuis-Kuiper operates with an indicator called "mental confusion" in her assessment. If you've seen some of the threats in the different threat under discussion, you'd know that it's a very apt phrase.
Lunch. I needed lunch even more than I needed coffee. Back on track!
Next up. Karoline Marko: What can the perception of threats tell us about the genre?
My kinda title.
My kinda title.
The genre of threats
Tend to have manipulative elements. This makes them conditional: "do this OR I do this".
Tend to have manipulative elements. This makes them conditional: "do this OR I do this".
They also point to the future. A threat is about something the utterer WILL DO to the recipient in the future.
They tend towards using polite greetings: "Dear ..." rather than more popular "Hi ...".
Tend to be signed, though the signing is not the name of the threatener, but some relevant fiction.
Tend to use euphemisms "portraying demand for ransom as a professional transactions".
Offer in the interest of the victim
Calls for cooperation
Work for mitigating the effect for the victim.
Offer in the interest of the victim
Calls for cooperation
Work for mitigating the effect for the victim.
Ransom notes tend towards administrative language due to lack of a genre model to form the letter over.
Also, because it looks more serious and allows the ransomer to be taken more seriously.
The question of disguise. Writers of anonymous messages tend to want to stay disguised. So the ransom note they write will tend towards making their language different, dumb down, trying to apply stereotypical features of the way foreigners write your language.
It's very hard to keep making the same kind of stereotypical mistakes through a long text, so a lot of the masking works better in shorter texts.
Pro-tip for would be ransomers/threateners/illicit genre users: short letters are better for your purpose.
Writers tend to write as if
They represent a group
Are superior to the victim
Are unscrupulous
Describe their leverage over the victim
Connect to prior offenses.
They represent a group
Are superior to the victim
Are unscrupulous
Describe their leverage over the victim
Connect to prior offenses.
The layout tends to follow either a private letter or a business letter.
Another contribution by the thread's (few!) readers. Notice that the threatener and the signature seem to match - which would be a clear generic marker. Suave threaterners know not to sign with their names. Then again, dogs are not very suave.
Next victim. Lara Waters: When words are a punishable offense – a prosecutor’s perspective on crimes involving language in Danish law. She says it'll be a fun presentation. I'm laughing already.
Start in the concept of the freedom of speech and expression. She notes, however, that all rights exist within several limitations. The Danish constitution thus has the "freedom of expression without prior censorship, but under responsibility towards the law".
Freedom of expression this "carries with it duties and responsibilities". So, you cannot just say anything.
Underscores the basic element in Danish laws concerning threats that it is NOT a prerequisite for the threat to be criminal, that the victim was actually afraid. The utterance just has to be "likely to induce" fear.
Or rather "serious fear". Not enough that you can be somewhat scared because someone threatens to "give you a round of beatings" does not constitute a crime in this sense.
A particular interest in Danish law is threats and violence against people whose jobs in public office puts them in a situation where they are regularly subjected to threats- ie against police officers.
Not going into the particular cases here, but Walters is right. We are having a lot of fun with cases involving fairly awful people.
This, in itself, is a little unnerving. People waving knives around and shouting insane stuff are not funny, but stories about them actually are.
I'm still giggling, of course. I'm more than a little unnerving myself.
We are now at the crime of being disorderly in public, and the example given (yes, I had to go there) is someone who while being arrested for selling drugs shouted "you bald egg" at a policeman with no hair. I like everything about the crime.
Wonderful to have a more lighthearted paper. I don't know what it is about lawyers. They tend to have that effect on me.
Second keynote coming up. Janet Ainsworth: When lies do not count as false statements: The curious world of common law defamation.
I don't know prof. Ainsworth at all - except that she seems a very pleasant person. It'll be fun to learn more.
I don't know prof. Ainsworth at all - except that she seems a very pleasant person. It'll be fun to learn more.
Fun thing for the #genderstudies people before we proceed. The day was a Womanel. Only female speakers - and in a conference NOT on gender. I quite like that it can actually happen these days. Those were some really good papers by some really good people.
Of course, prof. Ainsworth can still fail badly.
Somehow, I'm not very scared. Tanya Karoli says that she is "thrilled" to present prof. Ainswoth. No faint praise.
Somehow, I'm not very scared. Tanya Karoli says that she is "thrilled" to present prof. Ainswoth. No faint praise.
Starts with the damage to the fabric of society caused by the lies told by people in high office, notably, Trump of course.
Turns to the legal system. Lies are prolific from the witness stand. They are, however, rarely prosecuted.
Concentrates on defamation law.
A number of cases where false statements about people are thrown out of court in defamation suits for various reasons despite being well documented and obviously lies.
It's a tour de force through strange loopholes in law where "falsity isn´t falsity".
Oh yes, and she promised to buy some beer too. Wonder if she can have it with Mads Mikkelsen.
A historical overview where defamation moves from ecclasiastical courts in the middle ages (defamation was a sin) to the courts of common law.
A normal crime then.
I still think it's a sin.
But I'm secular enough to prefer prosecution in a system of common law.
But I'm secular enough to prefer prosecution in a system of common law.
Interestingly defamation was not connected to false statements to begin with. In fact, defamation by telling truth about leaders was considered defamatory because it causes public chaos and mistrust.
She's a wonderful speaker. Happy to be here.
She IS the kind of person you need for the last lecture of a long day. She keeps me interested.
So endeth today's lessons. A long day, as conferences are likely to offer, but full of spark, fun and threats. What more can a genre scholar ask for?
A critique? Well, I am a very happy person for having been in the company of so much engagement and intelligence, so I am reluctant to criticize.
But if I were to critique it I might say that the various papers show a remarkable width and an overall focus on the topic of #illicitgenres, but that they address the topic in various ways and to various depths.
This leaves us at the same place where many academic conferences leave you. Good topic, but is it actually one topic? And to what degree do people actually talk with one another and to what degree are they even talking about the same thing? I'm not certain.
The practitioners and the theorists are at some remove, and I am not sure that the discursive practices discussed by the practitioners would on closer examination turn out to always be uses of genre.
At least I'm not sure that the practitioners' approach to them is, in fact, genre interpretation, or whether they are looking for something else entirely.
Conversely, the things we do as theorists (yes "we", because in this I am a theorist if I am anything other than a - happy - bystander), is it even useful to the practitioners?
Or, more precisely, what parts of what we do in theory is useful, and what needs to be transformed or reframed do be useful? I'm not certain.
Anyway; just my initial thoughts. I will return tomorrow with More Fun With Awful Genres. Till then: don't threaten anyone, me luvelies, and try not to harass or defame anyone either.
Thread continues here:
