Genre Theories

Genre theorists  

Daniel Chandler- That genre have particular conventions of content such as themes, settings and form including and style e.g. Heavy metal bands would have B+W colour scheme, long hair

“Every genre positions those who participate in a text of that kind of as an interviewer or interviewee, a listener or story teller, a reader or a writer, as someone who is an instructor or instructs.”

Steve Neale- Looks at genre as repetition and difference, he says “genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variation”

“Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre.”

Dave Buckingham- Stated “genre is not simply given by the culture; rather, it is in a constant state of negotiation and change

Believes that genre change and develop over time but conventions stay the same

Rick Altman- Offering audiences a ‘set of pleasures’

The semantic (relating to meaning in language or logic)

Syntactic (set of rules and processes in terms of order of narrative)

Emotional Pleasures- emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films

Visceral Pleasures- Gut instinct responses, a feeling of a ‘roller coaster ride’

Intellectual Puzzles- Certain genres such as thriller or ‘cliff hanger’ offer pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or puzzle

He states that we need to approach genre in two ways so we can understand, associate and gain pleasure from texts

Syntax creates order and expectation to an audience when watching a video with a narrative

Dave Bordwell- Any theme may appear in any genre

We may have expectations of themes that link to genre however it is not restricted to that one genre

Jason Mittell