Genre
Thinking about the meaning of differences.
Genre
Categories of media. Understood variously in
terms of
 Agenda of Film Industry
 Artistic Practice and Aesthetic Conventions
 Discursive or Critical Reception (Audience
Preferences and Critical Interpretation)
Studying genre is perhaps most useful in
understanding the interplay among these
arenas.
MUSICAL
Singin In the Rain
(1952) by Gene Kelly
& Stanley Donen
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Romantic couple in society
Diagetic music alternates
with sober dialog
Acting: rhythmic movement
and realism
Alternating male and female
groups; merging in end
Stylistic
Happy Ending
Genre as Industry Template
As studio systems grew in Hollywood and
elsewhere, they began to recognize the
possibility of developing formulas for
commercially successful films.
 Studio systems began to conceive of
audiences in terms of groups with fidelity
to types of film. (Marketing)
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Familiar Genres in Cinema
As viewers we can quickly locate films or TV within genres
that are part of our media culture.
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Musical
Western
Gangster
Sci Fi
Bio-pic
Film Noir
Horror
Genres are vague and unfixed
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There are many arguments about what are
valid genres. There are no clear rules.
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Genres change historically, genres overlap, and
new genres are created
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Films may cross genres or only adhere partially
to a genre within a section of a film.
More Genres
Art film
 Queer Cinema
 Blackspoitation
 Martial Arts
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Basis of Genre Categories
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Location or setting (Western, Gangster, War,
Sports)
Mood or Themes (Action, Horror, Romance)
Format (Documentary, Experimental, Animation,
Soap Opera)
However, what makes a work fit within a genre is
always more than the title of the category
suggests. It combines of semantic, syntactic,
and pragmatic attributes.
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Semantic: what the film represents (characters,
settings, themes)
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Syntactic: the structure and relationship of
formal elements in the film.
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Pragmatic: How the film is taken up by viewers
and critics.
What constitutes a Genre?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Kind of events portrayed
Social class of the characters
Ethical qualities of the plot/characters
Narrative structure
Audience effects
Genre and Imagined
Community
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As Ella Shohat and Robert Stam point out, the
movie audience is a "provisional 'nation' forged
by spectatorship", and genre audiences form
what Rick Altman describes as "constellated"
communities—groups of individuals who
"cohere only through repeated acts of
imagination"—in the context of cinema, an
imagined connection among geographically
dispersed viewers who share similar
spectatorial pleasures and generic knowledge.
Genres as Fictional Worlds
Christine Gledhill(Film Scholar):
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Genres provide fictional worlds as sites for
symbolic actions.
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Interplay of realism (cultural verisimilitude) and
“non-real”. Fluidity of fictional and social
imaginaries (conflicts presented, and resolved).
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The metaphor of society talking to itself.
Genres and Community
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Just as communities are not
homogenous, we should keep in mind
that audiences of a particular genre are
diverse. Genres, thus mediate differently
positioned spectators.
WESTERN
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The Hero
The Antagonist
The Land
Community vs. lawless individual(s)
The Struggle between civilization &
primitivism/nature
The Drama in a ritualized form-gunfight, cattle drive
Example: Red River (1948) by Howard
Hawks
Gangster
1. Kind of events portrayed
2. Social class of characters
3. Ethical qualities of the characters
4. Narrative structure
5. Audience effects
Examples: The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, Goodfellas
Scorsese 1990, Little Caesar 1931, LaRoy
HORROR
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Audience effect is
key
Theoretical Questions and
Challenges
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Is there a minimum taxonomy or are genres limitless?
What are useful categories for study?
Are genres out there in the world or are they
constructed by film theorists, industry, audiences?
How do genres relate to contemporary values and
ideas?
How are genres descriptive and proscriptive?
Are genres timeless or time-bound?
How are genres understood and transformed across
cultures?
How do audiences negotiate preferred interpretations
suggested by genres?
Theoretical Approaches to
Genre
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Semiotics: study of how is meaning created.
Industry: History / social and economic analysis
Audience Reception
Spectatorship