Abstract

This article proceeds on the observation that although literary research and theory always emphasize the importance of genres, they often neglect their concrete role in text constitution and thus also miss the implications that this role has for the term and the concept of genre itself. Building on Roland Barthes’s concept of »code« as developed in ›S/Z‹, the aim of the article is to develop a theoretical framework that makes it possible to grasp the complex interaction between genres on the one hand, and individual texts and their techniques on the other. Genres are understood as codes that determine the methods of narration and are simultaneously influenced by these methods. This model is intended to help explain the generic ambiguity that is not only understood as a sign of modern literature par excellence, but also characterizes the concept of »genre« itself.