Genre Theory

The Genre Theory
Genre is "a recurring type or category of text, as defined by structural and thematic criteria" (David Duff, Modern Genre Theory).
Examples of Genre...

Key Components

- Stock characters

- Stock plots, situations, issues and themes

- Stock locations and back drops

- Stock props and signifiers

- Music and sounds

- Generic conventions

Paradigm

A paradigm is a stereotypical example or model, which can be used to sum up or signify a genre. It could be used as short-hand for film makers to ‘sell’ or discuss the genre of film.

Audiences & Institutions

Genre is very important as audiences can easily identify films and know what to expect when choosing what to watch. They find genres satisfying as they develop certain expectations when watching certain genre films, and if these expectations are fulfilled, will find satisfaction in recognition and predicting what will happen next. So, for instance, if someone was a fan of horror films, the trailers and posters for the film would carry the iconography and signifiers of the genre so that person could easily see the difference between that and a romantic comedy. 

Institutions also depend on genres as an immediate communication with the audience, therefore can use a familiar format/characters/situations, without much explanation as the genre characteristics are easily recognisable to audiences. They can use short-hand iconography and visuals using black and red colours for horror films on the posters, or a pink poster with a man and woman smiling standing back to back - typically signifying a romance film. This way it is clear to everyone what ‘type’ of film it is, making it easier for media producers to sell the film and audiences to consume it.

Genre Limitations

There are also problems with genre. Defining it can be hard, for instance it can often be hard to differentiate between a thriller and a horror film. Audiences can also get quite bored with seeing the same genre formulas again and again. This is why films that stretch and mix genres are often so well received. Therefore limiting films to one genre can often alienate some potential audience members, such as a romance film is stereotypically seen by females and an action film stereotypically seen by males.

Rick Altman

Rick Altman, Professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature, wrote a book called Film/Genre, where he puts forward a Semantic/ Syntactic/Pragmatic approach. 

Here is an extract from his book; "Whereas one Hollywood genre may be borrowed with little change from another medium, a second genre may develop slowly, change constantly, and surge recognisably before settling into a familiar pattern, while a third may go though an extended series of paradigms, one of which may be claimed as dominant. As long as Hollywood genres are conceived as Platonic categories, existing outside the flow of time, it will be impossible to reconcile genre theory, which has always accepted as given the timelessness of a characteristic structure, and genre history, which has concentrated on chronicling the development, deployment and disappearance of this same structure."

1) Semantic

Conventions that communicate to the audience the genre

e.g. shooting style, music, props, locations and characters

2) Syntactic

Relations between these elements and structure or narratives in genre

e.g. romantic comedy - The audience expects the potential lovers not to like each other, then through a series of meetings and problems the film culminates in their successful relationship.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has impacted on audiences through things like user-generated content. Audiences can be active consumers of texts, and thus can manipulate genres and generic conventions for their own pleasures. 

e.g. YouTube - reworking of film trailers

An example is The Shining below...