1. Genre
• An analysis of the text would need to set it
in relation to the forms and conventions.
• But it would not simply comprise a list of
those conventions.
• There are a whole host of theories of
genre and writers with different
approaches.
Genre THEORY

2. Understanding
• What is genre?
• Why is it important?
• What are the problems with genre?
• How do readers identify genre?
• Why do people want to categorise texts?
• What is the commercial significance of
genre?
Write your ideas onto the sheet

3. • Contemporary theorists tend to describe
genres in terms of 'family resemblances'
among texts (Swales 1990).
Genre SWALES

4. How many different ways are
there of categorising film?
Create a spider diagram

5. Ways of categorising texts
Grouping by period or country (American films of the 1930s),
by director or star or producer or writer or studio, by
technical process (CinemaScope films), by cycle (the 'fallen
LO
women' films), by series (the 007 movies), by style (German
Expressionism), by structure (narrative), by ideology
(Reaganite cinema), by venue ('drive-in movies'), by purpose
(home movies), by audience ('teenpix'), by subject or theme
(family film, paranoid-politics movies). (Bordwell 1989, 148)
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 Astaire-Rogers films) or budget-based
(blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the
art film), racial identity (Black cinema), locat[ion] (the
Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema). (Stam 2000,
14).

6. Understanding Genre
• Genres frame the reader’s interpretation of
the text…but are they fixed or given?
• Who is responsible for
creating genre?

7. “Genres are systems of expectations and
conventions that circulate between
industry, text and subject.” (Neale)
Genre NEALE

8. Do genres die? Become reborn?
Who is responsible for this?
Industry? Subject? or text?
• Explain how each can be responsible
for creating genre

9. • Steve Neale declares that 'genres are
instances of repetition and difference'
(Neale 1980).
• He adds that 'difference is absolutely
essential to the economy of genre' mere
repetition would not attract an audience.
Genre NEALE

10. • Christine Gledhill notes that 'differences
between genres meant different
audiences could be identified and catered
to... This made it easier to standardise and
stabilise production' (Gledhill 1985, 58).
• In relation to the mass media, genre is
part of the process of targeting different
market sectors.
Genre GLEDHILL

11. • Embedded within texts are assumptions
about the 'ideal reader', including their
attitudes towards the subject matter and
often their class, age, gender and
ethnicity.
Is this deliberate?

12. Genre THEORY
Recap
What is genre?
• Swales
Why do we want to categorise texts?
• Gledhill
Who is responsible for creating genre?
• Neale
Genre frames how we understand texts –
explain.

13. Embedded within texts are
assumptions about the 'ideal reader'
What is the ‘ideal reader’?
Target audience Genre
attitudes class
age gender ethnicity

14. • Contemporary theorists tend to
emphasize the importance of the
semiotic notion of intertextuality:
seeing individual texts in
relation to others.
Genre CONTEMPORARY

15. • Roland Barthes (1975) argued that it is
in relation to other texts within a genre
rather than in relation to lived
experience that we make sense of
certain events within a text.
Genre BARTHES

16. • Jacques Derrida proposed that 'a text
cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be
without... a genre. Every text participates
in one or several genres, there is no
genreless text' (Derrida 1981, 61).
Genre DERRIDA

17. • Referring to film, Andrew Tudor notes that
'a genre... defines a moral and social
world' (Tudor 1974).
• Indeed, a genre in any medium can be
seen as embodying certain values and
ideological assumptions.
Genre TUDOR

18. Exam Question
“Genres are systems of expectations and
conventions that circulate between
industry, text and subject.” (Neale)
Discuss theories of genre in relation to
one of your production pieces.

19. Assessment Criteria [25]
How do you answer Explanation/analysis
the question? [10 marks]
• You need to state which project
you are using and briefly describe
it. Use of examples
• You then need to analyse it [10 marks]
(critical distance) using whichever
concept appears in the question,
making reference to relevant
theory throughout. Use of terminology
• Keep being specific in your use of [5 marks]
examples from your project. Either
apply the concept to your
production or explain how the
concept is not useful in relation to
your product.

20. Assessment Criteria [25]
Level 3 Level 4
Ability to relate your on creative Clear understanding of representation
outcomes to some ideas about and relevant media theory and can
media representation drawn from relate concepts to the production
relevant media theory. outcome, describing specific
elements in relation to theoretical
Some relevant and convincing ideas.
examples from the production are
offered and these are handled Broad range of specific, relevant,
proficiently. interesting & clear examples of
how your product can be
understood in relation to theories.
The answers make proficient use of
relevant conceptual language.
The use of relevant conceptual
language is excellent.

21. How do you start?
Write a essay plan:
Spider diagram theories/concepts
Quotes/references
Link theories to your production
Sort them into a logical order

22. Exam Question
“Genres are systems of expectations and
conventions that circulate between
industry, text and subject.” (Neale)
Discuss theories of genre in relation to
one of your production pieces.