Genre theory categorizes texts and films into genres based on common elements to study them. Genre helps audiences and industries determine what to watch and create by supplying what is in demand. While genres were traditionally seen as fixed forms, they are constantly negotiated and changing, reflecting shifts in society and values. More recently, genres have become more hybridized and progressive as audiences have grown bored with pure genres and fixed formulas, making genres more difficult to definitively categorize.

1. Genre Theory
Genre is a tool which helps us to study text and films by categorising them into categories
based on common elements. “The word ‘genre’ means type or category. To study a film
as a genre involves treating it, not as a unique entity but as a member of a general
category, as a certain type of film” (Warren Buckland). Genre helps both audiences and
institutions to make decisions about what they want to see and what they want to make to
supply demand.
Buckingham (1993) – Traditionally, genres tend to be regarded as fixed forms but “genre is
not… simply ‘given’ by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation
and change”. Hence changes in genre reflect changes in society and our values.
Altman (1999) – “There is no such thing as ‘pure’ genre anymore. Genre is
progressive, in that it will always change”. He says that generic conventions are very
much a thing of the past. Audience have become bored of the same formula. He says that
genre is surviving due to “Hybridisation – or genres ‘borrowing’ conventions from one
another and thus being much more difficult to categorise.”