In this essay, from the Bakhtinian formulations, we discuss the concept of transmutation. The major purpose of this discussion is to better understand the constant tension between innovation and conservation so blatant in the genres of discourse. Conceiving transmutation as the phenomenon that would govern the ability to transform and to be transformed, to which genres of discourse inevitably undergo, and also based on the belief that the transmutation process of constitution of self and hetero genres occurs by distinct mechanisms, we propose an operational typology. We postulate, therefore, four categories: creative transmutation, innovative transmutation, internal transmutation and external transmutation. As a consequence, we intend to develop researches that might be assessed and discussed on the basis of the suggested typology, in order to revalidate it or rephrase it to expand our knowledge about the plasticity and the dynamics of discursive artifacts, without which human language would be unimaginable.
discourse genres; genre analysis; transmutation
