Genre Matters: Essays in Theory and Criticism

by Garin Dowd (Editor), Lesley Stevenson (Editor), Jeremy Strong (Editor)

This collection of new essays addresses a topic of established and expanding critical interest throughout the humanities. It demonstrates that genre matters in a manner not constrained by disciplinary boundaries and includes new work on Genre Theory and applications of thinking about genre from Aristotle to Derrida and beyond. The essays focus on economies of expectation and competency, genre as media form, recent developments in television broadcast genres, translation and genericity, the role played by genre in film publicity, gender and genre, genre in fiction, and the problematics of classification. An introductory essay places the contributions in the context of a wide range of thinking about genre in the arts, media and humanities. The volume will be of interest to both undergraduates and postgraduates, especially those following courses on Genre Theory and Genre Criticism, and to academics working in a range of subject areas such as Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Media Studies and Literary Studies.

Genres: Nonfiction

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Susu Liski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The multiple different authors really helped to create interesting perspectives and arguments. Some of the essays were way more interesting than the other but this might also be just a preference from me. The only real disappointment I had was with the main editor Gavin Dowd's texts. His texts were full of French quotes that he decided not to translate which made his essays really hard to read sometimes as I don't know any French. I expected more from the main editor and author of this essay collection.

The positive surprise was Susan Bassnett's essay about translating genres. I suspected that it would be boring but no, I was happy to be proven wrong. Another favorites of mine were Richard Kilborn's essay about today's television programs and Jeff Collins' essay about montage.