Genre Theory

Rick Altman, in a 1984 article, proposed a semantic/syntactic

approach to film genre. His aim was to ‘problematise’ the discussion
of genre within film studies. He recognised that the development of
film studies had seen a swing from ‘genre as history’ -- an approach
which often used the film industries’ own terms to describe how
genres changed over time -- to ‘genre as (semiotic) theory’ -- an
approach which largely ignored industry practices.

Altman pointed out that genre (up until the 1960s) was often
discussed in either ‘inclusive’ or ‘exclusive’ terms. Critics could refer
in an almost tautological sense to a genre as comprising all the
films that fulfilled a particular simple definition, e.g. westerns were
films set in the American West between 1840 and 1900. But most
analysis by scholars concentrated on a much more ‘inclusive’ list of
‘canonical’ films, which appeared to utilise the ‘essential’ elements
of the genre.

Altman initially proposed an approach which would combine the

‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ via a general semiotic/structuralist
approach. Thus the semantic approach to genre attempts to take a
broad definition of a genre repertoire and to include for potential
study all the films that appear to share the elements of the
repertoire or ‘common traits’ such as characters, locations, shooting
style etc. By contrast, the syntactic approach looks at the
relationships between these elements and how they are structured
in narratives. Altman’s example of this is the western in which the
semantic approach concentrates on identifying the constituent
elements and how they are presented, whereas the syntactic
approach (e.g. via Jim Kitses, 1969/2004) concentrates on
thematics such as the opposition of ‘East’ and ‘West’ or ‘garden’ and
‘desert’.

In his 1999 book Film/Genre, Altman admits that the straight

semantic/syntactic approach is lacking because it ignores the crucial
key concepts that have since been re-inserted into film and media
studies -- audience and institution. He adds a further ‘pragmatic’
approach which seeks to ask questions about exactly how producers
conceive of genres and cycles etc. He also recognises that as ‘fluid’
groupings of elements, genre texts are open to a diversity of
readings -- so audiences may, in effect, create and re-create genres
through 'reading'. Earlier approaches had tended to see audiences
as passive and to consider genre as formulae through which
Hollywood ‘peddled’ its ideologies.
Altman’s earlier 1984 article is included as an appendix in the 1999
book. The genre events offered by itp largely follow Altman’s
revised semantic/syntactic/pragmatic approach.

References
Rick Altman (1999) Film/Genre, London: bfi
Jim Kitses (1969, revised 2004) Horizons West, London: bfi
Nick Lacey (2000) Narrative and Genre, Basingstoke: Palgrave
Steve Neale (2000) Genres in Contemporary Hollywood, London:
Routledge
Steve Neale (ed) 2002 Genre and Contemporary Hollywood,
London: bfi
Steve Neale and Murray Smith (eds) (1998) Contemporary
Hollywood, London: Routledge
Tom Ryall (2000) ‘Genre and Hollywood’ in John Hill and Pam
Church Gibson (eds) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford: OUP

Genre Theory, Media Education Magazine,

http://www.itpmag.demon.co.uk/Downloads/altman.html