Genre Criticism
• What is a genre?
– Genre means type or category
– It is generally seen as a fusion of semantic
(stylistic) and syntactic (substantive) features
that (over time) become conventional to the
audience.
Genre Criticism
• Television Genre
– A type or category of program which shares a
set of characteristics with other TV programs in
that category
• Law and Order is one type of crime drama
• Without A Trace is one type of crime drama
Are they the same or different genre?
Genre Criticism
• Characteristics of genres
– Genres can be both state and dynamic
– Members of the genre share conventions
(similar features) with other members of the
genre, but may have unique features that
separate them
Genre Criticism
• Why do genres survive?
– Audience needs: escapism from everyday
routines and the boredom associated with dayto-day living
– Popular genre texts resolve tensions by being
both predictable and innovative (e.g 24)
– Media institutions needs: economic need to
draw large audiences weekly to keep
advertisers happy
Genre Criticism
• Foundation of Genre Theory
– Rhetorical roots can be traced to Aristotle (330
BC) - Genres became solidified into rules for
style and form (e.g. poetry, drama, song)
– 18th Century - revolt against such constraints
created new forms (e.g. novel)
– Electronic media borrowed from traditional
forms and created new ones (e.g. radio soap
opera)
Genre Criticism
• Foundation of Genre Theory
– Chicago school of criticism - renewed interest
in how genres shape individual artist’s work
and vice-versa.
Genre Criticism
• Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV
– Film - success of particular films led to making
more of the same, discovery that audiences
liked genre films
– ‘Classic’ Hollywood era production studios
made many genre films that European
filmmakers and critics dubbed Hollywood a
‘factory.’
Genre Criticism
• Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV
– Radio networks learned the value of genres in
raising audience expectations
– The need for weekly programming radio turned
to two forms
• Serial narratives (installment stories -borrowed from
magazines - soap operas)
• Series narratives (independent episodic adventures
of a regular cast of characters (crime drama Dragnet)
Genre Criticism
• Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV
– Game shows - contestants would compete for
prizes and fame
– Situation Comedies - regular characters thrust
into humorous situations weekly
– Vaudeville - entertainment/ variety shows
Genre Criticism
• TV Networks Adapt the new medium
– Since TV nets were the Radio nets, they
initially developed TV shows that mirrored
radio shows
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Situation comedies
Crime Dramas
Variety and Game shows
Soap operas
Genre Criticism
• Three Approaches to Genre Analysis
– Aesthetic approaches
• Focus on formal, stylistic features and innovations
• Typically looks at narrative structures and ignores
other syntactic features
• Usually provides limited insight into the genre’s
rhetorical force
Genre Criticism
• Three Approaches to Genre Analysis
– Ritual approaches
• Focus on underlying mythic, culture-typal themes
• Often use semiotic/structural analysis
• Use enduring or changing features of popular
generic texts to explore cultural tensions, rules, roles
and efficacy of social myths
Genre Criticism
• Three Approaches to Genre Analysis
– Ideological approaches
• Focus on how ideas, roles, norms that ‘naturalize’
current inequitable distribution of economic, social,
political power and resources are expressed in text
• Use semiotic/structural and ideological critical terms
and concepts
• Provide insight into how genre texts question or
celebrate the social, political, economic or cultural
status quo of society
Genre Criticism
• Reasons to do Genre Analysis
– To compare and contrast two genres
– To evaluate the quality of a particular member
of genre
– To trace the history of a genre
– To examine the relationship between the genre
and society’s dominant cultural ideologies
Genre Criticism
• Writing Genre Criticism
– The Chicken- Egg, Empiricist- Idealist dilemma
- the problem of how to know where to start
Genre Criticism
• Writing Genre Criticism
– Deductive approach
• Assumes the genre already exists
• Used to answer questions about what genre a
program belongs to, similarities and differences
between genre texts, between styles, traces changes
over time
Genre Criticism
• Writing Genre Criticism
– Inductive approach
• It proposes that a group of texts with some
similarities might constitute a new genre
• It is used to answer such questions as ‘What is this
new program? Or ‘What features do this group of
programs share?’
Genre Criticism
• Overarching statement
– Regardless of vocabulary, a genre is a group of
texts unified by a foundation of shared features
that overtime have become accepted to form
specific conventions within that type
Genre Criticism
• Different aspects of genre features that critics
identify and analyze
– Semantic (formal/ stylistic)
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Character type
Location (geography, time, space)
Scene setting ( indoors/outdoors)
Characteristics of types of shots, camera work
Style of action
Editing
Genre Criticism
• Different aspects of genre features that critics
identify and analyze
– Syntax (substantive)
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Narrative structure
Dialetic (recurring structure of paired opposition)
Recurring themes
Discourses (themes that are ideological or other)