genre is French for 'kind' or 'class' and is used to define a type of text.
The distinctive characteristics of a genre include:
- narrative - similar (sometimes formulaic) plots and structures, predictable situations, sequences, episodes, obstacles, conflicts and resolutions;
- characterization - similar types of characters (sometimes stereotypes), roles, personal qualities, motivations, goals, behaviour;
- basic themes, topics, subject matter (social, cultural, psychological, sexual, moral);
- setting - geographical and historical;
- iconography - a familiar stock of images or motifs, props, familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristic music and sounds; and
- filmic techniques – style of camerawork, lighting, sound-recording, use of colour, editing etc.
'Genres... are not discrete systems, consisting of a fixed number of listable items' (Gledhill 1985, 60). Genres overlap and share characteristics but it is their relative prominence, combination and functions which make them distinctive (Neale 1980, 22-3). Steve Neale declares that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference' (Neale 1980, 48). The differences are essential as mere repetition would not attract an audience. Todorov argued that 'any instance of a genre will be necessarily different'.
Genre conventions change over time as a result of several factors:
- creative producers,
- the society and times in which they are produced,
- economic and technological factors,
- and changing audience preferences.
Susan Hayward argues that film genre conventions change 'according to the ideological climate of the time', contrasting John Wayne westerns with Clint Eastwood (Hayward 1996, 50). Think of the differences between Dracula and Hostel!
Some Marxist and feminist theorists see genre as an instrument of social control which reproduces the dominant ideology. Many horror films reflect the idea that immoral females get punished whilst the moral character is the ‘last girl standing’. However, reader-oriented commentators have stressed that people are capable of 'reading against the grain'.
Semiotically, a genre can be seen as a shared code between the producers and interpreters of texts included within it. Alastair Fowler goes so far as to suggest that 'communication is impossible without the agreed codes of genre' (Fowler 1989, 216). Embedded within texts are assumptions about the 'ideal reader', including their attitudes towards the subject matter and often their class, age, gender and ethnicity, not to mention their experience of the genre.
Genre is a practical device to ensure economic success (if the genre is popular) and to help audiences choose what films they want to see. (McQuail 1987, 200) Genre is therefore part of the process of targetting different market sectors.
People seem to derive a variety of pleasures from reading texts within genres. 'Uses and gratifications' research has identified the following pleasures:
1. One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre because of our familiarity with it. This includes intertextual references (think Scary Movie)
2. Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism.
3. 'Cognitive' satisfactions may be derived from problem-solving, testing hypotheses, making inferences (e.g. about the motivations and goals of characters) and making predictions about events. Making predictions is a big part of the pleasure of horror and mystery films.
4. Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980: 48); there would be no pleasure without difference. René Wellek and Austin Warren comment that 'the totally familiar and repetitive pattern is boring; the totally novel form will be unintelligible.
5. Making moral and emotional judgements on the actions of characters may also offer a particular pleasure.
6. Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with other fans.
7. Ira Konigsberg suggests that enduring genres reflect 'universal dilemmas' and 'moral conflicts' and appeal to deep psychological needs (Konigsberg 1987, 144-5).
Try applying these questions to your Horror teaser trailer. Remember that it is part of two genres (horror and teaser trailers)
Genre analysis
1. What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?
2. How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
3. Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
4. What familiar motifs or images are used?
5. Which of the stylistic techniques employed are typical/untypical of the genre?
6. What institutional constraints are reflected in the form of the text?
7. What ideological assumptions and values seem to be embedded in the text?
8. What pleasures does the text appeal to (and how typical of the genre is this)?
Audience
1. What sort of audience is the text was aimed at?
2. How does the text address the viewer?
3. What assumptions does the text make about the viewer’s class, age, gender and ethnicity?
4. What knowledge does it take for granted?
5. What responses does the text seem to expect from you?
6. How open to negotiation is the text (are viewers coerced to respond in particular ways)?
Relationship to other texts
1. Are there any intertextual references in the text?
2. Generically, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
