Name: - Omer Rehan

Class: - As - E

Genre

Genre study is an academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of

general critical theory in several different fields, including the literary or artistic,

linguistic, or rhetorical.

Literary genre studies is a structuralist approach to the study of genre and genre theory

in literary theory, film theory, and other cultural theories. The study of a genre in this

way examines the structural elements that combine in the telling of a story and finds

patterns in collections of stories. When these elements (or semiotic codes) begin to

carry inherent information, a genre emerges. In art history, genre theory considers

the visual arts in a similar way.

In film theory, genre refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative

elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film genre are borrowed

from literary genre criticism. Besides the basic distinction in genre between fiction and

documentary, film genres can be categorized in several ways.

Martin Loop contends that Hollywood films are not pure genres, because most

Hollywood movies blend the love-oriented plot of the romance genre with other genres.

Stagier classifies Andrew Tutor's ideas that the genre of film can be defined in four

ways. The "idealist method" judges films by predetermined standards. The "empirical

method" identifies the genre of a film by comparing it to a list of films already deemed to

fall within a certain genre. The "social conventions" method of identifying the genre of a

film is based on the accepted cultural consensus within society. Jim Collins claims that

since the 1980s, Hollywood films have been influenced by the trend towards "ironic

hybridization", in which directors combine elements from different genres as with the

Western/Science fiction mix in Back to the Future Part III.

Genre is often a vague term with no fixed boundaries, and many words also cross into

multiple genres. Recently, film theorist Robert Stam challenged whether genres really

exist, or whether they are merely made up by critics.

While some genres are based on story content (the war film), other are borrowed from

literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are performer-

based (the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while

others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Race films), location

(the Western), or sexual orientation (Queer Cinema)

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to

a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and

musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways. The artistic nature of

music means that these classifications are often subjective and controversial, and some

genres may overlap. There are even varying academic definitions of the

term genre itself. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green distinguishes

between genre and style.

Genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as

subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre or sub-genre may

also be defined by the musical techniques, the style, the cultural context, and the

content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a

music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of

sub-genres.

Adventure Genre

Adventure film is a genre that revolves around the conquests and explorations of a

hero. The purpose of the conquest can be to retrieve a person or treasure but often the

main focus is simply the hunt of the unknown. These films generally take place in exotic

locations and play on historical myths. Adventure films incorporate suspenseful puzzles

and complicated problem that the hero must overcome in order to achieve the end goal.

Swash buckler films are a subgenre of the action films genre, often characterized by

sword fighting and adventurous heroic characters know as swashbucklers, often set in

Western Europe in the period between the late Renaissance and the Age of reason with

appropriately lavish costumes.

This sub-genre is characterized by lavish sets and costumes. Swashbuckler film

includes period weapons, castles and dramatic battles. The story usually revolves

around a damsel in distress and the charming hero.

Examples The Three Musketeers, The Mask of Zorro and Robin Hood

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_studies

http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/adventure#

http://www.filmsite.org/adventurefilms.html