Genre Theory
"for most of its 2,000 years, genre study has been primarily nominological and typological in function. That is to say, it has taken as its principal task the division of the world of literature into types and the naming of
hose types" - Robert Allen defining 'genre.
In the past, before it was studied and expolred, genre was decided solely on the base conventions we see on screen (horse + guns = western. for example). Even though what we see on the front is ususally correct, sometimes eploring the film, acessing not only it's basic conventions, but also what makes up the film for what it is (structure,etc) and what sets it apart from others allows us to expand the idea of genre and make it so that we are able to seperatew films that may seem similar on the front, but differ at the core.
Daniel Chandler said: " Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them."
In the past, genre has been regarded as a fixed form, but theorits in more recent have argued that this no longer the case, that films differ in their function and form, so we cannot label a film based on a sole genre. David Buckingham said something similar about this topic: "Genre is not... simply given by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change."
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