Genre studies  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 01:15, 25 August 2008

A simple example of the inherent meaning in an art form is that of a western film where two men face each other on a dusty and empty road; one dons a black hat, the other white. Independent of any external meaning, there is no way to tell what the situation might mean, but due to the long development of the "western" genre, it is clear to the informed audience that they are watching a gunfight showdown between a good guy and a bad guy.

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The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre

Genre theory is a structuralist approach to literary theory, film theory, and other cultural theories. When studying a genre in this way, one examines the structural elements that combine in the telling of a story and find patterns in collections of stories. When these elements (or codes) begin to carry inherent information, a genre is emerging.

See also

• Content analysis
• Genre theory, corpus and tautology
• Body genres versus mind genres.
• Stock character
• Plot device
• Genre fiction
• Formula fiction
• Tautology

By medium

• Music genre
• Film genre
• Literary genre

External links

• An Introduction to Genre Theory by Daniel Chandler

When a medium is prefixed by genre-

When a medium is prefixed by the term genre- as in genre painting, genre film and genre fiction this usually has a derogatory meaning. The fact that these cultural artifacts belong to a genre - thus can be said to be generic - somehow makes them less valuable. This is why one will find reviews stating that and I am making this one up: "Although Spike Lee's latest film Inside Man is a genre film, his abilities as a director elevate it to a real auteur film." What makes Inside Man a genre film is that it fits in the category "heist movie", what makes it an auteur film is Spike Lee's artistic vision, his artistic merit, his personal vision on filmmaking.

Place and genre-theory

Place as a metaphor for genre theory: e.g. pornographic films are shown is special theaters, discotheques play club music, etc...

The lifecycle of a genre

1. a certain number of cultural products (films, music, books), share common characteristics
2. critics notice similiarities and come up with a name (see neologism)
3. the name is accepted by the audience and a genre is born

producers start to make products to fit the new genre classification

1. parodies may arise

Exception to these rules in case of a manifesto.

"A number of perennial doubts plague genre theory. Are genres really 'out there' in the world, or are they merely the constructions of analysts? Is there a finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite? Are genres timeless Platonic essences or ephemeral, time-bound entities? Are genres culture-bound or transcultural?... Should genre analysis be descriptive or proscriptive?' (Robert Stam 2000, 14) via Daniel Chandler, http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html

Don Quixote and genre theory

Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote has been called "the first novel" by many literary scholars (or the first of the modern European novels). It was published in two parts. The first part was published in 1605 and the second in 1615. It might be viewed as a parody of Le Morte d'Arthur (and other examples of the chivalric romance), in which case the novel form would be the direct result of poking fun at a collection of heroic folk legends. This is fully in keeping with the spirit of the age of enlightenment which began from about this time and delighted in giving a satirical twist to the stories and ideas of the past. It's worth noting that this trend toward satirising previous writings was only made possible by the printing press. Without the invention of mass produced copies of a book it would not be possible to assume the reader will have seen the earlier work and will thus understand the references within the text.

Parody

Some genre film theorists see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre, especially in film. Westerns, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were lampooned. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.

Modern Genre Theory (1999) - David Duff

Description Much of the world's literature and criticism has been shaped by ideas about the nature, function and value of literary genres. Modern developments in critical theory and the emergence of new media such as film and television, have put in question traditional categories, and challenged the assumptions on which earlier genre theory was based. This anthology, the first of its kind in English, charts these new developments and contains judicious selections from major twentieth-century theorists including Mikhail Bakhtin, Gérard Genette and Jacques Derrida.

1 Benedetto Croce Criticism of the Theory of Artistic and Literary Kinds 2 Yury Tynyanov The Literary Fact 3 Vladimir Propp Fairy Tale Transformations 4 Mikhail Bakhtin Epic and Novel : Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel 5 Mikhail Bakhtin The Problem of Speech Genres 6 Northrop Frye The Mythos of Summer : Romance 7 Ireneusz Opacki Royal Genres 8 Hans Robert Jauss Theory of Genres and Medieval Literature 9 Rosalie Colie Genre-Systems and the Functions of Literature 10 Fredric Jameson Magical Narratives : On the Dialectical Use of Genre Criticism 11 Tzvetan Todorov The Origin of Genres 12 Gerard Genette The Architext 13 Jacques Derrida The Law of Genre 14 Alastair Fowler Transformations of Genre 15 Mary Eagleton Genre and Gender