A short cartography of genre studies in Brazil

• We provide a short cartography of Brazilian genre studies.
• We survey Brazilian genre studies and applications in official education policies.
• Four genre schools are discussed: Sydney, Geneva, ESP and Sociorhetoric.
• We discuss Critical Genre Analysis, an interdisciplinary approach in Brazilian Applied Linguistics.
• Critical Genre Analysis integrates social practice, discourse, genre and lexicogrammar.

In this paper, we provide a cartography of Brazilian genre studies, exploring what we call Critical Genre Analysis (CGA) and its interdisciplinary research (e.g., Bonini, 2002; 2010; Meurer, 2002, 2005; Motta-Roth, 1998; 2008a), which draws mainly on John Swales' work (1990; 1998; 2000; 2004) to discuss the concept of genre references. Firstly, we identify the four main schools which have served as theoretical background for the development of genre studies in Brazil: the British tradition of ESP, the American New Rhetoric Studies, the Sydney school, and the Geneva school. We then look at how CGA incorporates interdisciplinary contributions from Swales' Genre Analysis, Sociorhetoric, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. We argue for the need to develop a critical approach to genre, integrating the analysis of lexicogrammar, discourse, sociocultural context, and ideology. We conclude by emphasizing the relevance of CGA for literacy pedagogy, especially in academic contexts.