Genre Criticism

Prof. Nick Burnett

Wednesday, Feb. 22

ComS 169—Television Criticism

Some issues with the papers

Manual proofreading Spell and grammar checking through

word processing Their, there, they’re Whose, who’s It’s, its

Editing Marks on Papers

AWK WC NAS Reverse P, extra slash Colloquialisms

Goofball, cheesy, don’t get it Standards of academic prose

Considering television genres Definition: Genres are complex fusions of

formal, stylistic, and substantive features which over time become familiar frameworks capable of arousing and satisfying the expectations of audiences and producers

While individual elements may appear in other genres, they are defined by their unique combination of elements that appear in all members of the genre

Each member of a genre is both familiar and unique (ex. A baseball game)

Why critics do genre analysis…

To explain a problematic text To compare and contrast two genres To evaluate the artistic or aesthetic

qualities of members of a genre To trace historical patterns to see

parallels between the genre and society and explaining recurring tendencies

Some history

Borrowed from film and radioWesternsSerialized soap operas

Why?Build loyal audienceControl production costs

Early critical worksHorace Newcomb’s TV: The Most

Popular Art

Three approaches to genre criticism Aesthetic approach

Focus on innovation and constraint Ritual approach

Focus on genre as an expression of shared beliefs and values

Looks at the enduring popularity of a certain genre

Ideological approach Sees genres as instruments of power and

control which help to reproduce dominant ideologies or systems of belief

Two methodological orientations to genre work Deductive genre analysis

Work from an established genre, look at specific show, focus on innovations, postulate the importance of the innovations for the genre and society

Inductive genre analysisStart from several TV texts, postulate

a new or identifiable sub-genre or hybrid genre