Rick Altman's genre theory suggests that genre is made up of two different elements:
- Semiotic elements - physical conventions such as props, costumes, locations, colours etc.
- Syntactic elements - emotional themes such as love, hate, heroism, cowardice etc.
Steve Neale's Theory
Steve Neale's genre theory suggests that genre goes through a cycle and changes throughout its lifespan. The genre will change its signs, orientation, or expectations in order to move to the next stage of the cycle. His theoretical cycle is this:
- Form finds itself - it's ground breaking, sometimes making a new genre from an old one.
- Classic - it's associated with the genre by the majority of people.
- Pushes boundaries - take the classic film and tweak bits to do something unexpected.
- Parody - an imitation of films in the genre with deliberate exaggeration for comedic effect.
- Homage - it makes references to other famous films from the genre as a mark of respect.
He also believes that genre is enjoyed by audiences because of either the repetition of a repertoire of elements or because the director makes a change to that repertoire.
Robert Stam's Theory
Robert Stam believes that genre doesn't really exist. He thinks that trying to classify something is too simple. In reality, he believes that every text has elements of hundreds of different genres, sub-genres, and hybrid genres. This makes them impossible to 'pigeon hole'.
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