Genre
Applying genre to your
chosen text
An introduction to genre
 ‘Genre’
is a critical tool that helps us study texts and
audience responses to texts by dividing them into
categories based on common elements.
 Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word genre comes from
the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘type'.
 The term is widely used in literary theory, media
theory to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’.
 Steve Neale (1980) declares that “genres are
instances of repetition and difference” – it is essential
for genres to deviate occasionally in order to attract
and engage audiences.
Which genre is your text?
Music video – which genre category is it? Performance, illustrative
or disjuncture? (Andrew Goodwin)
 What genre is your music?
 Which generic conventions have you applied? E.g. lip-sync closeup, mimed playing of instruments, repetition of chorus shots to
enhance ‘repeatability’, unusual camera shots and angles, first
person mode of address directly engaging the viewer through the
camera, star image
OR
 Film – what genre is your film?
 Which generic conventions have you applied?
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Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic
codes and conventions:
Tom Ryall suggests that the types of conventions found in
genres might be grouped within the following categories:
Iconographies: (symbolic forms associated with the genre)
Narrative: (structure, open/closed)
Representations: (characters/stereotypes)
Ideologies (beliefs and ideas of the ‘ideal’ concept, themes)
Which of the above codes/conventions does your c/w use
and how?
Genre and audiences
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If we recognise the genre of a text it enables us to feel at
home and we gain enjoyment from “spotting the conventions”
(repetition) and making comparisons with other films of the
same genre.
However if a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse
us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken,
providing that the film-maker doesn’t go too far.
We are more advanced than audiences of the past simply
because we’ve seen more films than anyone in the history of
the media, so we expect genres to be played with.
Which conventions would your audience enjoy spotting in
your text?
Genre and audiences
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Genre offers audiences a structure or framework
enabling us to feel secure in our knowledge.
Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for the
predictable features and getting involved in a
text.
Audiences can influence genres by reviving
them.
Pleasure of genre for audiences
• Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set
of pleasures’.
Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered to
audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they
generate a strong audience response.
Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses and
are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a
physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of
revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’.
Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller
offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery
or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and
forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.
• Which set of pleasures does your genre offer?
Frank McConnell – 5 Genres
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Frank McConnell’s theory is based around the
idea that instead of basing genres on their visual
clues (mise en scene etc) it is more meaningful
to split texts according to their themes, plots and
leading characters.
He argues that his genres can be applied to any
situation in a film where the lead character will fit
one of these roles and the state will be their
family, business or empire…
Frank McConnell – 5 Genres
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The King – establishing the state – the epic
The Knight – consolidating the state – the
adventurous romance
The Pawn – trapped in the institutionalised
state – the melodrama
The Fool – responding to the madness of the
state – the satire
Apocalypse – the collapse of the state which
leads to a new beginning – no single hero
Which of these categories fits your film text?
Thomas Schatz – 2 Genres
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Thomas Schatz’s theory is that there are
just two genres: the genre of order and the
genre of integration (1981).
Genres of order (western,
gangster, sci-fi etc)
Hero – individual, male-dominant
 Setting – contested space which is argued over (ideologically
unstable)
 Conflict – externalised – against others (expressed through
violence)
 Resolution/ending – elimination (death)
 Thematics – The hero takes upon himself the problems,
contradictions of his society and saves us from them
- macho code of behaviour
- isolated self-reliance
(either through his departure or death, the hero does not fit in
with the values/lifestyles of the community but maintains
individuality)
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Genres of Integration (Musicals,
comedies, domestic melodramas etc)
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Hero – couple or collective e.g. family
Setting – Civilised space (ideologically stable)
Conflict – Internalised – between themselves (expressed through
emotion)
Resolution/ending – embrace (love)
Thematics – the romantic couple or family are integrated into the
wider community, their personal antagonisms resolved
- maternal – familial code
- community co-operation
Which of these categories fits your film text (genre of
integration or order)?
The Strengths Of Genre Theory
The main strength of genre theory is that
everybody uses it and understands it –
media experts use it to study media texts, the
media industry uses it to develop and market
texts and audiences use it to decide what texts
to consume.
The potential for the same concept to be
understood by producers, audiences and
scholars makes genre a useful critical tool. Its
accessibility as a concept also means that it
can be applied across a wide range of texts.
Genres are not fixed. They constantly change
and evolve over time.
David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre
is not... Simply "given" by the culture:
rather, it is in a constant process of
negotiation and change’.
In terms of your coursework...
• How we define a genre depends on our
purposes (Chandler, 2001).
• What was your purpose and the medium?
• Your audience and the industry sector you
were working within will have defined what
you understood as the genre and sub-genre
of the texts you created.
Practice question
“Media texts rely on audience knowledge
of generic codes and conventions in order
for them to create meaning”.
Analyse one of your coursework
productions in relation to genre.