Genre and gender share not only a common etymology but also a joint history of misreading, which ranges from their being completely ignored on the one hand to their being cast into unbreakable stereotypes on the other. This book opens these two concepts to inquiry and locates their changing relationships at the centre of critical interpretation. Gerhart demonstrates that a theory of genre must move beyond mere categorising. She summarises the significant stages in the history of thinking about genre from Plato to Derrida, and proposes a new role for genre that makes it pivotal in current discussions of critical theory. Developing a model of genre that is epistemological, historical, theoretical and praxis-oriented, she tests it in relation to such fields as religious studies, speech-art theory, cultural studies and biblical hermeneutics, but, above all, by applying it to the interpretation of narrative fiction and film. Gerhart suggests the profound implications of genre and gender, as she redefines them, for both literary criticism and religious studies.