Genre Criticism

1. Genre Criticism • What is a genre? • Genre means type or category • It is generally seen as a fusion of semantic (stylistic) and syntactic (substantive) features that (over time) become conventional to the audience.

2. Genre Criticism • Television Genre • A type or category of program which shares a set of characteristics with other TV programs in that category • Law and Order is one type of crime drama • Without A Trace is one type of crime drama Are they the same or different genre?

3. Genre Criticism • Characteristics of genres • Genres can be both state and dynamic • Members of the genre share conventions (similar features) with other members of the genre, but may have unique features that separate them

4. Genre Criticism • Why do genres survive? • Audience needs: escapism from everyday routines and the boredom associated with day-to-day living • Popular genre texts resolve tensions by being both predictable and innovative (e.g 24) • Media institutions needs: economic need to draw large audiences weekly to keep advertisers happy

5. Genre Criticism • Foundation of Genre Theory • Rhetorical roots can be traced to Aristotle (330 BC) - Genres became solidified into rules for style and form (e.g. poetry, drama, song) • 18th Century - revolt against such constraints created new forms (e.g. novel) • Electronic media borrowed from traditional forms and created new ones (e.g. radio soap opera)

6. Genre Criticism • Foundation of Genre Theory • Chicago school of criticism - renewed interest in how genres shape individual artist’s work and vice-versa.

7. Genre Criticism • Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV • Film - success of particular films led to making more of the same, discovery that audiences liked genre films • ‘Classic’ Hollywood era production studios made many genre films that European filmmakers and critics dubbed Hollywood a ‘factory.’

8. Genre Criticism • Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV • Radio networks learned the value of genres in raising audience expectations • The need for weekly programming radio turned to two forms • Serial narratives (installment stories -borrowed from magazines - soap operas) • Series narratives (independent episodic adventures of a regular cast of characters (crime drama -Dragnet)

9. Genre Criticism • Film and Radio Roots of Genre TV • Game shows - contestants would compete for prizes and fame • Situation Comedies - regular characters thrust into humorous situations weekly • Vaudeville - entertainment/ variety shows

10. Genre Criticism • TV Networks Adapt the new medium • Since TV nets were the Radio nets, they initially developed TV shows that mirrored radio shows • Situation comedies • Crime Dramas • Variety and Game shows • Soap operas

11. Genre Criticism • Three Approaches to Genre Analysis • Aesthetic approaches • Focus on formal, stylistic features and innovations • Typically looks at narrative structures and ignores other syntactic features • Usually provides limited insight into the genre’s rhetorical force

12. Genre Criticism • Three Approaches to Genre Analysis • Ritual approaches • Focus on underlying mythic, culture-typal themes • Often use semiotic/structural analysis • Use enduring or changing features of popular generic texts to explore cultural tensions, rules, roles and efficacy of social myths

13. Genre Criticism • Three Approaches to Genre Analysis • Ideological approaches • Focus on how ideas, roles, norms that ‘naturalize’ current inequitable distribution of economic, social, political power and resources are expressed in text • Use semiotic/structural and ideological critical terms and concepts • Provide insight into how genre texts question or celebrate the social, political, economic or cultural status quo of society

14. Genre Criticism • Reasons to do Genre Analysis • To compare and contrast two genres • To evaluate the quality of a particular member of genre • To trace the history of a genre • To examine the relationship between the genre and society’s dominant cultural ideologies

15. Genre Criticism • Writing Genre Criticism • The Chicken- Egg, Empiricist- Idealist dilemma - the problem of how to know where to start

16. Genre Criticism • Writing Genre Criticism • Deductive approach • Assumes the genre already exists • Used to answer questions about what genre a program belongs to, similarities and differences between genre texts, between styles, traces changes over time

17. Genre Criticism • Writing Genre Criticism • Inductive approach • It proposes that a group of texts with some similarities might constitute a new genre • It is used to answer such questions as ‘What is this new program? Or ‘What features do this group of programs share?’

18. Genre Criticism • Overarching statement • Regardless of vocabulary, a genre is a group of texts unified by a foundation of shared features that overtime have become accepted to form specific conventions within that type

19. Genre Criticism • Different aspects of genre features that critics identify and analyze • Semantic (formal/ stylistic) • Character type • Location (geography, time, space) • Scene setting ( indoors/outdoors) • Characteristics of types of shots, camera work • Style of action • Editing

20. Genre Criticism • Different aspects of genre features that critics identify and analyze • Syntax (substantive) • Narrative structure • Dialetic (recurring structure of paired opposition) • Recurring themes • Discourses (themes that are ideological or other)