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

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)

Familiar Genres in CinemaAs viewers we can quickly locate films or TV within genres

that are part of our media culture.

Musical Western Gangster Sci Fi Bio-pic Film Noir Horror

Genres are vague and unfixed There are many arguments about what are valid

genres. There are no clear rules.

Genres change historically, genres overlap, and new genres are created

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

Basis of Genre Categories 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.

Semantic: what the film represents (characters, settings, themes)

Syntactic: the structure and relationship of formal elements in the film.

Pragmatic: How the film is taken up by viewers and critics.

What constitutes a Genre?

1. Kind of events portrayed

2. Social class of the characters

3. Ethical qualities of the plot/characters

4. Narrative structure

5. Audience effects

Genre and Imagined Community 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):

Genres provide fictional worlds as sites for symbolic actions.

Interplay of realism (cultural verisimilitude) and “non-real”. Fluidity of fictional and social imaginaries (conflicts presented, and resolved).

The metaphor of society talking to itself.

Genres and Community

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 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 portrayed2. Social class of characters3. Ethical qualities of the characters4. Narrative structure5. Audience effects

Examples: The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, Goodfellas Scorsese 1990, Little Caesar 1931, LaRoy

HORROR

Audience effect is key

Theoretical Questions and Challenges 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 Semiotics: study of how is meaning created. Industry: History / social and economic analysis Audience Reception Spectatorship