Genre Theory

Genre Theories

Repertoire of elements:

• Iconography – Visual and sound icons can establish genre. Holsters and saloons are visual icons of a Western. Discordant music is a sound of horror genres.
• Style – sometimes difficult to distinguish from iconography but basically the style is how the icons are presented – camera use, lighting, framing and editing.
• Setting – some genres have particular locations that we associate with them – isolated buildings for horror. Time periods are also important – most westerns are located between 1840-1890.
• Narrative – this refers to story structure and the narrative devices used to tell a story. There is also the ‘narrative of reassurance’ where the audiences are pleased with the ending. Certain genres have particular narratives – melodramas have conflicts; a western can have the sheriff/outlaw conflict. There are usually narrative set pieces which we associate with certain genres – chases and shoot-outs in action film etc.
• Characters – most genres have a hero and villain and some become generic types – the psychopath and the girl victim in some horror films. Some films like to have character pairs, especially in cop films where the two main cops are a team – old/young; male/female; black/white.
• Themes – universal films that we can nearly all identify with and find interesting – romance; anger; bullying etc. binary oppositions (Levi-Strauss) are another way of seeing themes. In westerns, for instance we can often see east vs. west; law vs. crime. There are also discourses – a film can contain a debate or put forward an argument about a topic. Science-fiction is often a discourse about modern technology or science – usually about potential dangers; think about ‘28 Days Later’.