Genre is a way of categorising a text through style and form. It is vital to be able to categorise texts in this way - both for production and analysis. Most students associate genre with film, and indeed this is where categories can be most easily identified.
The definition of genre from dictionary.com is "a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, context, technique, or the like." Although it seems that genre should be easy to define, the finer points of textual categorisation are not yet established.
Genres, according to Daniel Chandler, create order to simplify the mass of available information. Creating categories promotes organisation instead of chaos. Jane Fuere has divided ways to categorise genres into three different groups. The first is aesthetic. By using this method one can organise according to certain sets of characteristics, and so the overall work of the artist is not disparaged by generalisation. The second classification method is ritual. Ritual uses its own culture to help classify. If one performs a ritual associated with a system of ritual, one can be said to be practicing as a member of that system. The common taxonomical method is ideological. This occurs most often in the marketing of texts, music, and movies. The effectiveness of this type of categorisation can be measured by how well the public accepts these categories as valid.
Genre is dependant on many factors, the storyline, the director, and the audience's expectations to name few. When creating or marketing a film, it is important to consider the audience the film will be for.
