|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for kind or class. ... Robert Allen notes that for most of its 2,000 years, genre study… has taken as its principal task the division of the world of literature into types and the naming of those types - much as the botanist divides the realm of flora into varieties of plants (Allen 1989, 44). ... In literature the broadest division is between poetry, prose and drama, within which there are further divisions, such as tragedy and comedy within the category of drama. ... A genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world, notes Jane Feuer (1992, 144). ... For instance, in the case of films, some seem to be aligned with one genre in content and another genre in form. ...
How we define a genre depends on our purposes; the adequacy of our definition in terms of social science at least must surely be related to the light that the exploration sheds on the phenomenon. For instance (and this is a key concern of mine), if we are studying the way in which genre frames the readers interpretation of a text then we would do well to focus on how readers identify genres rather than on theoretical distinctions.
Drama, as a genre, particularly series and serials, lies at the heart of the TV schedules, delivering the largest audiences and the greatest standing. ... But drama is expensive, it takes a long time to produce and the failures bring huge disappointment and, sometimes, humiliating. But when the chemistry is right, the drama just grabs you and doesn’t let go. ...
Many lessons may be drawn from a list, which covers almost 50 years and various sub-genres of TV drama series and serials.
Approximate Word count = 1475
Approximate Pages = 5.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|