bhatia-interdiscursivity_in_critical_genre_analysis.pdf

391 INTERDISCURSIVITY IN CRITICAL GENRE ANALYSIS Vijay K. BHATIA (City University of Hong Kong) ABSTRACT: Although it is generally accepted that pr ofessional genres are better understood and analyze d in terms of the professional practices that they in variably co-construct in specific contexts, in genr e literature, they are often analyzed in isolation, t hus undervaluing the role and function of interdisc ursivity in professional genres. This paper will draw on a n umber of professional contexts and argue for a clos er study of interdiscursivity to facilitate a more com prehensive and critical understanding of discursive and professional practices. KEYWORDS: genre; discourse; professional practice. 1. Introduction Text and context have been assigned varying importa nce in the analysis of professional genres. In the early conceptualization s of genre the focus was more centrally on text, and context played a relatively less impor tant background role. However, in more recent versions of genre analysis context has been assigned a more important role, redefining genre as a configuration of text-interna l and text-external resources, thus highlighting two kinds of relationships involving t exts and contexts. Interrelationships within and across texts focusing primarily on text- inter