Week 24 Flashcards
What is Genre?
-type or kind
-Aristotle, Poetics
3 genre of poetry: epic, tragic, comic
-Genre and Hollywood
The studio system and the emergence of popular film genres
-Genre and Film Studies
Auteurist vs. genre-based approaches
The Trouble with Genre
-Uncertainty of some generic categories
-Genre definition as process influenced by producers, publicists, reviewers and audiences
Generic Conventions/ Content
Recurring plot elements, settings and/or character types
-Recurring themes
Generic Conventions/ Style
-Mise-en-scene, cinemetography, editing, sound
-Iconography
The Fluidity of Genres
-Generic conventions are fluid, not static
-Tend to evolve over time
-Creative tension between genre’s “rules” and makers of individual genre films
-Generic hybrids are common
Genre and Culture
-Genres influenced by
earlier genre films
Industrial imperatives
critical discourse
audience demands
cultural trends
“reflectionist” approach to popular genres
sub-genres and cycles of genre films come and go.
Comedy
The familiar comic and tragic masks remind us of the relationship between these two genres, whose roots extend back to Ancient Greek theatre.
“Romance” and its meanings
-Medieval romance (romance as genre)
-Knights errant & courtly ladies
-Quests, contests and battles
-Supernatural elements
-Romance as narrative form
-Long narrative in prose or verse
-Precursor of the novel
Romance as a Mode
-Romance vs. realism and satire
-Types of romance in this sense include SF, the Western, Fantasy
The Modern Romantic Comedy
-Obstacles and complications block the path of love
-Economic/ class issues often in play in choice of suitor.
Marriage and Romance in Historical Context
-Choice of a suitor had life-determining economic and social implications for women.
-these are often glossed over in romance stories: courtship and marriage are matters of the heart.
