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Full Idea
From Aristotle onwards it has been a tenet of the traditional rhetoric that the proper understanding of a literary work involves the location of it in the correct genre, that is, as drama, epic or lyric.
Gist of Idea
The traditional view is that knowledge of its genre to essential to appreciating literature
Source
Richard Wollheim (Art and Its Objects [1968], 32)
Book Ref
Wollheim,Richard: 'Art and Its Objects' [Penguin 1975], p.82
A Reaction
Walton argues this persuasively. I've seen the climax of a Jacobean tragedy ruined by laughter from the audience. Genre dictates appropriate responses, so it is a communal concept.