A genre; from French "kind" or "sort", from Latin: genus (stem
gener-) is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the
term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also
used for any other form of art or utterance.
Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are
formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple
genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions.
In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared to originality.
Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or
participating in the conventions of genre.
Although genres are not precisely definable, genre considerations
are one of the most important factors in determining what a person
will see or read.
Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding
publications that support them, such as magazines and websites.
Genre is the categorization of mass produced popular forms and audience
pleasure in them.
1 - Iconography - typical signs whose connotation have
through routine become fixed - costumes - setting - tools
of the trade specific to genre types.
2 - Basic subject matter - thematic preoccupations and
narrative paradigms specific to each genre.
3 - aspects of style - lighting - camera angles - special effects
Genre operates using
a) repetition – the bare framework of elements.
b) difference - how the connection between these elements
will be made new.
Articulation is how the iconography, basic subject matter (narrative paradigms,
and aspects of style work in full context.
There is prejudice against genre forms.
1 - They are from Hollywood and therefore not worthy of serious attention.
They are not "realistic" or "artistic”.
2 - This snobbery begins with the 19th century idea of Americans as European
immigrants who can't speak English properly. New visual forms emerging during
the 1800s , dime store novels, cartoon strips , comic books, the cinema and the
popularity of early kinetoscopes (1-reelers), were considered to be vulgar.
There has been a long standing literary prejudice against the popular commercial
arts, the assumption that there is a difference in the quality of content, audience
and skill between Modernist notions high and low culture.
The audience for mass culture and popular arts is large in number and thought to
be underdeveloped in their aesthetic sensibility.
There is prejudice against genre forms.
3 - Genre forms are the carriers of capitalist’s propaganda or ideology.
4 - These forms are seductive and pernicious and encourage audiences to
escape from the 'real-questions' via fantasy
5 - They contain 'Utopian-pleasures' that are not not political but give the
feeling that things could be better.
" They're all the same. If you've seen one you've seen them all."
GENRE in film & television
A genre film or television show must exhibit a relationship with other examples of
the genre.
This implies a consciousness of this relationship on the part of the filmmaker & the
audience.
Audience Expectation - the genre of a film is a major aspect of its selling point
featured in publicity that constructs a narrative image in the minds of its potential
audience.
Standardization signifies "sameness" but also denotes a maintenance of
standards in the sense of quality
Different genres appeal and are marketed for specific audiences who do not
want absolute repetition in cultural products.
At no time has the cinema industry invented its own categories - rather it
has made use of terms ( comic / mystery / romance ) already in public
circulation and previously incorporated into institutional discourses.
The convention is replayed but always with a difference - innovation.
Going to the movies is a social activity and a cultural ceremony or practice connected to
broadcasting, print mediums, television viewing, the web - with its own codes &
institution.
Genres are no longer sets of fixed elements .
They are repertoires of elements or fluid systems of conventions and expectations
shared by makers and audience, both active in meaning making.
Audience approval and participation make-or-break products of a particular genre therefore raising the cost of advertising time during or before transmission .
Innovation
1- what kinds of innovation are unacceptable in commercial genres ?
2- Unacceptable to whom ?
3- Does the audience always want a happy ending?
Censorship - a spectrum of institutional assumptions about unacceptable activities
within particular genres which can be invoked to suppress or dismiss difference.
Does the Happy Ending mythology exclude some identities and imaginings and
reinforce dominant & sometimes oppressive sets of values? Hegemony
How many genres of Happy Endings are there?
Some genres are seen to have more verisimilitude or connection to the real
than others - which makes a key difference as to what their ideological work
may be.
EXAMPLE: violence - if you are against violence on TV do you consider
cartoons as important as action movies - because cartoons have less
verisimilitude?
Is the violence featured in cartoons different from live action films?
Generic Verisimilitude - expectations that are specific to a genre.
Example : how a "proper" or "real" vampire in a SciFi/horror film should act or
look like.
Cultural Verisimilitude - the genre's relationship to expectations about the world
outside the genre.
Example: court-room drama - more important than musical
genre?
Does a genre that makes explicit reference to public or political events outside
itself seem more real?
Law & Order – discussion or 911 or Iraq War.
What ideology is inherent in any genre form ?
Situation Comedy – 1950s perfect family – 2009 perfect family.
What ideology is being discussed in terms of narrative content or dramatic
construction ?
Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guy?s
How are women and minorities represented?
How are people from other cultures and countries represented?
What ideology exists in terms of set design and costume ?
How are ideas of success, normality, ethics, and power represented?
What ideology or ideologies are omitted in terms of diegesis – the space constructed
by a narrative .
Audio-Visual Signifiers - all genres have their distinct forms.
Science Fiction or Medical shows have signifiers of ‘scientific-ness’ or Technobabble.
Class-Reality in relation to visual signifiers.
Example: living spaces in "Friends.” Can a waiter afford a huge apartment in
Manhattan?
Omissions of political reality - portrayal of political correctness Ideo – babble
Cinema & TV make comments not only in dialogue but in choice of sets and
casting - youth = beauty = good = normal = consume, as signifiers.
Genericity - Jim Collins 1993 - A new awareness - sophisticated hyperconciousness
related to the reworking of traditional generic convention in contemporary media
texts. The concept of genericity predates post-modern dialogue.
Post modern genre films always involve some degree of hybridity.
Oppositions - a first set of oppositions established by the classic western-genre
evolved over time so that in recent westerns there is a set of completely inverted
oppositions :
CLASSIC WESTERN
1-civilization / strong socialization / hero in society
2-hero ensures villain stays outside society - wilderness
3-order / society is good
POST-MODERN WESTERN
1- hero not inside society - wilderness
2-civilization is corrupt
3- villain lives inside society
4-establishment of anti-hero
Argument : classic western where capitalist land baron is villain.
GENRES are always in play rather than being played.
Did the 1960's and social deconstruction change the face of the western and the
hero/heroine in general ?
Did the civil rights movement bring into question the representation of NativeAmericans?
Are post modern westerns accurate in their portrayal of women and men?
Paradigms evolve or sometimes invert depending on the socio-historical factors
present.
Social/Cultural Paradigm shifts.