Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Preface / Authors: Bert Roest and Herman Vanstiphout -- Adam per Evam deceptus est, non Eva per Adam. Biblical Repertoria in Fourteenth-Century Canon Law. / Dirk Claes -- Some Brave Attempts at Generic Classification in Premodern Arabic Literature. / Geert Jan van Gelder -- Rigid Readings of Flexible Texts. The Case of Sixteenth-Century Comic Drama. / Femke Kramer -- Medieval Historiography: About Generic Constraints and Scholarly Constructions. / Bert Roest -- Boundless Papyri. / Monique van Rossum-Steenbeek -- The Fable is Dead  Long Live the Fable! Or, is there any life after Genre? / Anda Schippers -- "I Can Put Anything In Its Right Place". Generic and Typological Studies as Strategies for the Analysis and Evaluation of Mankind's Oldest Literature. / H.L.J. Vanstiphout -- Continuity and Change in Mesopotamian Lexical Tradition. / Niek Veldhuis -- When Phaedra Left the Tragic Stage: Generic Switches in Apuleius' Metamorphoses. / Maaike Zimmerman -- Postscriptum / Authors: Bert Roest and Herman Vanstiphout.

This collection of studies is the result of a series of seminars organised by COMERS in 1996. The theme of generic problems has led to a variety of disciplines (Ancient Oriental, Classical, Medieval, Arabic, Middle Dutch...), of textual types (fables, historiography, comedies, Canon law.) and a variety of approaches (case studies, theoretical studies, confrontations between 'native' and 'critical' schemes.). This collection may be useful for comparative purposes, but also as an incentive for further studies on generic problems, theoretical as well as topical.

Description based on print version record.