Task 3 - Genres

BLOG POST 3

GENRES

A genre is a style or category of art, music, film and literature. Over the years films have adopted multiple genres catering to different audiences such as:
• Action ( Indiana Jones)
• Horror (Nightmare on Elm Street)
• Romance (Titanic)
• Comedy ( 21 Jump Street)
• Sci-fi ( Terminator)
• Western ( A Fistful of Dollars)

  
I am going to focus on the superhero genre for this blog post, as it is one that has drastically increased in popularity over the recent years. The three main factors that resulted in the increase of popularity in superhero movies are in my opinion the technology used for special effects has advanced to the point where it studios now have the means to create a believable and good super hero movie thanks to the use of cgi. Another factor is that comic book storylines have matured with its audience, so the potential for more mature and adult themes are viable now, as evident by the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Another factor is that superhero movies already have an established audience, so there is already a financial incentive to produce one.
The superhero genre is older than one would think. The mark of Zorro was the first “superhero” movie, and it was created in 1920. During the 1940s some emergence of now considered “mainstream superhero” films were made such as Batman and Robin and Superman. However, the genre took off in the 1970s with the classic Superman film produced in 1978. However during the 1990s the genre declined with box office bombs such as Batman Forever and Daredevil. It was only the success of the Spiderman films and the Dark Knight trilogy that caused a revival in the superhero genre. The genre is now going extremely well thanks to marvels “Avengers” project.

 Common conventions and tropes in superhero genres include:
• A coming of age story
• Binary opposite - “Good versus Evil”
• Story is about opposing forces battling
• Common character tropes – anti-hero, snarky comic relief, “card-carrying” villain”, love interest.
•  Elements of fantasy and sci-fi
• Set in New York

Sometimes the superhero genre takes a more realistic approach to the story and characters. A good example would be Watchmen and The Dark Knight Saga. Tropes in these “grittier” types of superheroes include more anti-heroes and villains; the good versus evil is more “grey versus grey” rather than “white versus black”.
The Superhero genre sometimes has a hybrid with other genre in which conventions are shared. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy combines some sci-fi tropes such as star ships and alien worlds along with the established super hero conventions. In addition, Thor combines the superhero genre with high fantasy and it Norse mythos are featured prominently in the film.



 Thomas Schratz composed a theory that there are only two types of genres; Genres of Order and Genres of Integration.

Genres of Order (Western, Gangster, Sci-fi etc.)
Hero Individual - Male dominant
Setting Congested space - fighting for territory (ideology unstable)
Conflict Externalised - against others. Expressed via action codes; conflicting ideologies
Resolution/ Ending Elimination (death)
Thematic (narrative themes) The hero takes the problems upon himself, contradictions to his society and saves us from them- protecting audience. Macho code of behaviour, isolated self-reliance

Genres of Integration (Musicals, comedies, domestic melodramas etc)
 Hero - Couple or collective e.g. family
 Setting - Civilised space (ideologically stable)
 Conflict - Internalised - between themselves (expressed through emotion)
 Resolution/ending - embrace (love)
 Thematics - The romantic couple or family are integrated into the wider community, their personal antagonists resolved
                   - Maternal, familiar code
                   - Community co-operation

Another Theorist, Bucking, states 
'Genre is not simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change.'


◦ Pastiche – uses/copies stylistic features/iconography with no mocking intent; often it can be a mosaic of different genres creating a hybrid
◦ Homage – deliberately imitating the characteristics of another text as an indication of that texts importance e.g. What Lies Beneath contains homage to Psycho.
◦ Parody/Spoof – usually a playful treatment of the genre e.g. Shaun of the Dead is a parody of Dawn of the Dead (even the title!)