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GENRE THEORY

Genre Theory
Daniel Chandler: Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion
that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings)
and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are
regarded as belonging to them
...
Steve Neale declares that
'genres are instances of repetition and difference' (Neale 1980, 48)
...


Texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre
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1994)
...
David Buckingham
argues that 'genre is not
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Daniel Chandler: Every genre positions those who participate in a text of that kind:
as interviewer or interviewee, as listener or storyteller, as a reader or a writer, as a
person interested in political matters, as someone to be instructed or as someone who
instructs; each of these positionings implies different possibilities for response and
for action
...
(Kress 1988,)
Thus, embedded within texts are assumptions about the 'ideal reader', including
their attitudes towards the subject matter and often their class, age, gender and
ethnicity
...
Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not),
derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot
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Aristotle, of course,
acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres
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•Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale
1980); there would be no pleasure without difference
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We
may also enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions and the consequent shifting
of our expectations
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Tom Ryall (1978) – Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in the shape of
patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of production
of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience
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’
Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions:
i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset the considerable economic
risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and
difference
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e
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Can Genre be defined by audience? Is it a question of film
comprehension?
Neale (1990) – Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and
hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact
with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process
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Acts of communication are rendered intelligible only
within the context of a shared conventional framework of expression
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To the producers of films, genre is a template for what they make
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To the distributor/promoter, genre provides assumptions about who the audience is and how
to market the films for that specific audience
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To the audience, it is a label that identifies a liked or disliked formula and provides certain
rules of engagement for the spectator in terms of anticipation of pleasure e
...
the anticipation
of what will happen in the attic scene of The Exorcist
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When genres become classic, they can exert tremendous influence: production can be come
quicker and more confident because film-makers are following tested formulae and have a
ready shorthand to work with, and actors can be filtered into genres and can be seen to have
assumed ‘star quality’ when their mannerisms, physical attributes, way of speaking and acting
fit a certain style of genre
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In turn, viewers become ‘generic spectators’ and can be said to develop generic
memory which helps the in the anticipation of events, even though the films
themselves might play on certain styles rather than follow closely a clichéd
formula
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g
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We do not consume films as individual
entities, but in an intertextual way
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6
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David Bordwell notes, 'any theme may appear in any genre' (Bordwell 1989)
‘One could
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a)

Genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns
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c)

Genres have clear, stable identities and borders
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e)

Genres are transhistorical
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g)

Genres are located in particular topic, structure and corpus
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i)

Genres have either a ritual or ideological function
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