Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each statement by whether it belongs to the CLASS model of genre or the FAMILY RESEMBLANCE model.
Groups: Class model · Family resemblance
- Members are linked by overlapping similarities
- No feature need be shared by every member
- A single missing feature excludes a work
- A work either belongs or does not
- A genre is best described by its clearest exemplars
Hints
- One model draws a boundary; the other describes a centre.
- Anything about exemplars or overlapping similarity belongs to the second.
Show the answer
Class model: A work either belongs or does not, A single missing feature excludes a work
Family resemblance: Members are linked by overlapping similarities, A genre is best described by its clearest exemplars, No feature need be shared by every member
Why
The models differ in what they predict. The class model expects clean boundaries and finds constant exceptions; the resemblance model expects clear central cases and blurred edges, which is what literary history actually shows, nobody argues whether Oedipus is a tragedy, and everybody argues about the borderline cases.
Practise Genre Theory
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.