Introduce Your Genre
- Identify your tentative “underappreciated” genre (or subgenre)
Inspirational/Motivational home décor sayings
- What is interesting to you about this genre? Or, why might it be significant or otherwise worth paying attention to?
Its intended purpose versus its actual impact; is it bought necessarily for self-uplifting purposes or is it an image preserver/painter? Is it for the buyer to see or the guests to judge the buyer’s ethics? Does it actually make an inspirational impact on anyone or the guise of the “glass half-full” persona? Do words even count as décor? What do they say versus what do they imply about the buyer? Does anyone actually buy this bullshit– like honest to God believe what they’re saying? Does this mimic possibly the reiteration of reassuring scriptures, but set in a paganist context?
- Tentatively, define/describe your corpus (collection of texts/examples)
Generic, Mary Sue-esque sayings that are as overlooked as finely printed warning labels. They follow mostly the same format and take to a modern, online-text presentation that, again, can be easily overlooked.
- Provide links (and/or titles) of five samples. (Try to gather samples from more than one “place” [or type] in order to obtain a diverse and accurate representation of the genre. For now, choose samples without significant deviations).
Describe the Context
- Setting: Where (in what context or medium) does the genre appear? How and when is it used? With what other genres does this genre interact? How?
Oftentimes homes to fill the cavernous space of wall room instead of actual interior decoration; they are normally in a setting that fits with the wording (i.e. family rooms have ones with familial sayings). Normally people are too shy (or boring) and have to talk themselves up with inspirational sayings because their personality is a little off-putting.
- Subject: What topics, issues, ideas, etc. are common to this genre? When people use this genre, what are they communicating about?
Can be positive, uplifting statements that keep one’s charisma satiated, or possibly make comments about political/animal affiliations (i.e. cats are better than people). Lifestyle recommendations are the most popular, possibly to remind them to follow a better way of living or to convince an audience that they live by these rules or life.
- Writers: Who writes the texts in this genre? Are multiple writers possible? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must writers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do writers write the genre (e.g., in teams, on a computer, in a rush, for their profession? for fun?)?
Mostly older generations that try to appeal to younger generations without more than a slight understanding of modern culture. Old, ‘outdated’ values printed in fancy font appeal to younger generations looking to revive an old culture or whatever. Must be clever, and if not clever appear so with word framing and placing. Not strict in creation, can be a manufactured saying from a popular catchphrase, or something out of biblical scripture, or personally adapted.
- Readers: Who reads the texts in this genre? Is there more than one type of reader for this genre? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must readers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?
Hopefully the buyer, but mostly the visitors who are not so acquainted to the house and its décor as to notice it more intently. The buyer performs the role of having to live up to the saying at the expense of being a hypocrite, and the visitor plays the role of making judgments for themselves about the sayings, whether or not they agree with them, and whether or not their views about the person they are visiting changes.
- Exigency/Purpose(s): Why do writers write this genre, and why do readers read it? What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?
Writers write in this genre to feel clever and because people will always buy it. Readers read it to feel something about the saying, whether it be inspiration or love or happiness, even though it has the potential to fade after the redundancy of seeing it often. It cleverly covers up empty space on one’s walls and influences the persona of the host to houseguests.
This is an interesting underappreciated genre because I find it weird to have sayings around a home. It’s like are you trying to convince me that you’re super happy with life? Especially, biblical scriptures because let’s be honest most people who have verses on their wall probably don’t even know what they actually mean. That being said, do people really consider wall decals as a type of art? I am interested in seeing where you go with this.