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This article studies the role of “Rhetorical Situation” in the formation of genres. Accordingly, the article discusses the concept of genre in rhetoric which includes a variety of fields ranging from the ancient oratory to the communication studies in 20th century. Unlike literary approaches which define genre mostly on the basis of textual features (form and content), rhetorical approach defines genre according to the extra-textual features such as situation and audience. Before 20th century, the concept of “situation” was very much static and limited to some specific and clear-cut situations and the speaker and audience only had to passively respond to these situations. In 20th century, the theories of Bakhtin and Carolin Miller turned this concept into a dynamic one. According to these theorists, a genre comes to existence in a communicative process and with the participation of speaker and audience. This article first addresses the theories of genre in ancient rhetoric, and then goes on to show that the definition of genre as social action makes genre a tool for production and reproduction of social values and ideological assumptions in different cultures. Finally, the article mentions some of the consequences of rhetorical approach for literary studies.

Keywords: Genre, rhetorical situation, oratory, Social act

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