Genre Theory (Theorist)

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