With this in mind try to list 12 genres of your choice.

The concept of "genre" is, however, fraught with problems and difficulties. A particular genre is not a fixed or static framework: it could be argued that 'The Western', for example, can only be defined by referring to all of the 'Westerns' which have ever been written or produced, and that each new example of the genre changes the overall character of the genre as a whole. Similarly there are few examples (in film or literature) which conform exactly to the codes and conventions of a particular genre; more often than not films or programmes will cross "genre boundaries" and draw on a a number of genre characteristics. A final important point to remember is that genres develop over time, and in response to social and historical contexts. They may simply go out of fashion, or they may undergo transformation over a period of time.

With these considerations in mind, what does genre determine?

(1) Setting and Location. For example, the western is frequently set on a frontier between 'nature' and 'civilisation', with all the associations and recognisable signs of that frontier; the Gothic genre, with its reliance on a location associated with a decaying aristocratic tradition, is very different in setting from the Urban Detective movie, with its setting being cosmopolitan and frequently involving low life. Location is not simply geographical, e.g. 19th century Cornwall or 21st. Century planetary colonies!

(2) Characterisation. Included here are factors such as the complexity, status, function of characters, the reliance on stereotypes, and the emphasis on particular aspects of the lives of those characters - professional, sexual, moral, psychological, or social. Questions of characterisation are inextricably linked with those of plot, e.g. Which came first, plot or characters? Does the plot "generate" the characters, or does it work the other way round?

(3) Plot and Structure. Genre influences the basis, development and terms of explication and resolution of the plot - e.g. the Thriller is concerned with questions of social disorder and its restoration, the detective thriller with the detection and punishment of criminality, the Romantic text with the attainment or otherwise of the desired object or person. The basic point underlying this is that narratives are structured on the principle of disorder, transgression or disequilibrium; the nature of the genre influences the ways in which that disorder (problem) is developed and resolved. Think back to the diagram discussed last week (p.15). Characters serve this basic structural principle, as participants within or functions of this movement from disorder to order. Also involved here: the basis of the reassertion or restoration of order at the end of a text is influenced by the particular genre. For example, moral order restored in the Western, romantic attainment in the Romance (based on a narrative of desire and coveting), and categories of supernatural/other-ness/monstrous in texts concerned with the supernatural. The detective thriller, however, will generally resolve through a rational and secular form of explanation or resolution.

(4) Themes and Concerns. With (3) above comes the tendency of particular genres to be concerned with exploring or resolving certain issues or themes. For example, the detective genre is preoccupied with questions of law and social order, criminality, property ownership, justice and legality; romantic films and fiction with moral and sexual orders, the transfer of property and the 'heir', and also issues of reason vs. passion, normality and abnormality. Horror fiction is concerned with exploring the nature of the 'monstrous' or 'other', the metaphysical order, natural and cultural, the scientific and empirical against the supernatural and unknown.

(5) Pleasures, Expectations and Narrative Address. Each genre generates particular pleasures and expectations in the audience, whether the pleasures are cognitive (problem-solving, analytical, informational), or affective (empathy and engagement, vicarious thrilling or escapism). There's also the question of the 'placing' of the desired or 'ideal' viewer/reader, and the way that particular genres create or address particular races, gender or class groups.

(6) Style. This is a more general and amorphous category, but refers to the ways in which a genre influences or directs such features as film technique and the manipulation of the image, the selection of music, the reliance on 'stars' and of the role and style of the director. Within a couple of minutes of watching a film or programme we already have been able to make some sort of conscious judgement about the kind of film or programme we are watching, and we have come to this judgement through being able to pick up on these general 'signs'

See how the above applies to the following, using four genres of your choice as examples

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