Genre belongs mainly to the arts, more specifically being literature, media and music. This essay will consider the meaning of genre in each outlet and how they are twisted to suit the needs of the text producer. Examples of genre will be used to describe how both the characteristics and social functions entwine, serving the interests of the original producer.
A genre is a specific type of style, form or content in writing, expressed over a variety of media outlets such as from the music, film and television industries as well as the genres expressed and manipulated in writing. Many genres may overlap within an assortment of channels, for example, in novel writing ‘mystery’ and ‘fantasy/supernatural’ may appear in both literature and film, being easily manipulated to fit a wide series of interests. On the other hand, genre in musical platforms are not so easily moulded by the producer and tend to be much more concrete, for example, ‘jazz’ or ‘country’ have specific connotations, with attributes unique to the given genre, giving the text producer very little room to manipulate the subject to serve their own interests.
Genre refers to a style or category of art, music, or literature and is heavily influenced by a texts chosen subject matter, be it setting, plot or even a simple advertisement, everything must have at least one genre involved, as John Frow states “all texts are strongly shaped by their relation to one or more genres, which in turn they may modify.” Genres have grown to be defined as a method of communication between the initial text producer and the consumer and a genres category help define and organise texts for both the producer and the consumer.
The genre allocated to a text provides an important set frame of reference with personalised characteristics that will allow an attentive audience to both select and interoperate between different styles of text. In relation to advertisements Varda Langholz Leymore argues that ‘the sense which viewers make of any single text depends on how it relates to the genre as a whole’ (Langholz Leymore 1975, IX). The key functions of genre more often than not is to include the genetic frameworks that function to create a genetic basis that allows the text to become more ‘transparent’ to the viewing audience familiar with the genre in question. Unlike registers, which have been identified as having the basic structure of a precise composition of three main comparative categories being the field, mode and tenor of discourse. A genre is based on its communicative purpose, and Anis Bawarshi states thaat “… scholars who define genre as a regulative perceive it, at best, as being a communitive or interpretive tool, a conduit for achieving or identifying an already existing communicative purpose…” instead of a method that follows strict characteristics and perform a range of social functions.
Text producers have to be able to manipulate genres in order to serve their own interests as well as the interests of their selected audiences, a text producer’s main aim is to mould their texts to produce various emotional responses from those to use their texts, Greek philosopher Aristotle, had acknowledged the numerous emotional responses which were linked to different genres and their effect on the participant audience. In advertisement a wide variety of genres are used a manipulated to either sell a product or warm an audience of adverse effects of a product on a daily basis. An advertisements main aim is to persuade an audience to purchase a product and a text producer has genre at their disposal to manipulate the audience. An advertisement boasts the widest assortment of genre, ranging from scare tactics (horror), to comedic for example, published in September 1st 2015, and found on YouTube, Pot Noodle produced an advertisement with the slogan ‘No Matter What Your Dream, With Pot Noodle #YouCanMakeIt’ utilising the genre of parody, the advert in question features a young man’s monologue on when using the product he saved time on mundane everyday tasks such as cooking in order to achieve his dreams, creating massive uplifting reactions from British audiences on social networking sites, and causing sale rates to rise.
Genre began as a fixed classification in Ancient Greece and held significance in a specially calculated style, which when observed, is still followed as a base rule in modern society’s use of genre. As speech patterns were specifically formulated for certain genres stereotypes were created for a main genre allowing little manipulation possibilities for the text producer, for example, the stereotypical speech patterns for a comedic performance would not be suitable for another genre like a tragedy. On the other hand, text producers, over the years, have found numerous ways to manipulate there set genres to suit their own needs, by merging two conflicting genres like comedy and tragedy and creating a new subgenre such as ‘tragicomedy’ (popularised by authors such as Shakespeare) the producers have opened up a whole new set of rules to manipulate and mould to their needs. This is also found in media, many films do not simply fit into a specific genre. These was not the case a few years ago, films fit into rigid characteristical traits such as western and were immensely popular, now the popularity has waned, text producers have to adapt the genres, such as modernising the classic genre or merging more than one genre together.
As Raymond Williams stated “there are clear social and historical relations between particular literary forms and the societies and periods in which they were originated or protected…” with period dramas such as Downton Abby’s popularity on the rise a text producer can take this opportunity to manipulate the genre to both educate and entertain their audience.
More often than not, a genre can be used as a tool to reflect the most common of modern social situations as Bex states “Genres operate at the interface of social function and text type” most genres function as a Public Genre, where the nature of the text is to inform an audience and often ignores the need for a personal relationship between the text producer and their intended audience. This may be due to the selected genres as, on a subconscious level, a genre being taken as and used for cinematic media functions or in written form can be manipulated by the text producer in order to mirror the social norms for western attitudes. The majority of films or literature produced today has to work to harmonise a genre with public attitudes.
In terms of social functions, a genre does not remain relevant for an extended period of time, and experience cycles of popularity, and with it their effectiveness in social situations, which in turn affects how the text producer will need to manipulate the genre to suit their own interests and appear desirable to the intended audience. To remain relevant a genre must remain unique. However, public genres tend to exhaust themselves quickly; the market they occupy is both crowded and competitive, so in order to stand out a text producer must become a pioneer in his work. On the other hand, a private genre, unlike the public genre, has no such restrictions due to being interactive strictly between specific individuals. A formal letter between peers has limitations such as restricted lexis and alternate methods of bringing a point forward compared to other forms of private genres such as correspondence between friends or family which tend to be more varied in execution.
Richard Coe wrote that the “Tyranny of Genre” and stated that this was used as a way to “signify how generic structures constrain individual creativity.” As when a text has been labelled as a specific genre the public look for certain characteristics that they believe have a correspondence to the genre. For example, when defining something like a shopping list, people automatically presume everything on the list is for shopping without looking for a second meaning. These kinds of characteristics create limitations that restrict their social functions and make it increasingly difficult to manipulate.
Whether the text producer is writing a book, a movie script, or a poem, genre matters. The way a genre is manipulated affects the characters involved, the lexis used and the plot itself. Text producers find, when manipulating a genre for their own use and in promoting of their interests, they must not only be comfortable with their choice but have a deep understanding of the characteristics needed and how the text produced will fit into a range of social functions.
Reference list
Frow, J. (2006) Genre (new critical idiom series). London: Taylor & Francis
Langholz Leymore, Varda (1975): Hidden Myth: Structure and Symbolism is Advertising. New York: Basic Books
Bawarshi, Anis. 2000. “The Genre Function”. College English 62 (3). National Council of Teachers of English: 335–60. doi:10.2307/378935.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClKMIr3WpjY
Jones/Bhatia/FI (2007) Advances on discourse studies. London: Taylor & Francis.
Elliot, J &Harkin, G. (2015)Introduction: Genres of Neoliberalism. Vol 31. No 2.
Coe, Richard. “An Arousement and Fullfillment of Desires’: The Retoric of Genre in the Process Era – and Beyond.” Genre and the New Rhetotic. Ed Aviva Freedman and Peter Medway. London:Taylor & Francis, 1994. 181-190