Media and Genre : Dialogues in Aesthetics and Cultural Analysis

This book reflects and analyzes the relationship between media and genre, focusing on both aesthetics and discursive meaning. It considers genres as having a decisive impact on media cultures, either in film, on TV, in computer games, comics or radio, on the level of production as well as reception. The book discusses the role of genres in media and cultural theory as a configuration of media artifacts that share specific aesthetic characteristics. It also reflects genre as a concept of categorization of media artifacts with which the latter can be analyzed under terms depending on a specific historical situation or cultural context. A special focus is placed on trans-media perspectives. Even as genres develop their own traditions within one medium, they reach beyond a media-specific horizon, necessitating a double perspective that considers the distinct recourse to genre within a medium as well as the trans-media circulation and adaption of genres."--Publishers description Contents 5 Notes on Contributors 10 List of Figures 13 Introduction: Media and Genre 16 1 Genre and Aesthetics 19 2 Genre and Culture 25 Genre and Structure 26 Genre and Discourse 29 Genre and Mediality 35 3 Genres in Media and Cultural Theory 39 4 Transmedial and Transnational Perspectives 41 5 Re-examining Genres in Film Studies 44 References 46 Part I: Genres in Media and Cultural Theory 49 Genre in Action: The Impossibility and Value of Genre Analysis 50 1 Critical Legacies: Genre and Authorship 52 2 Action as Genre, Genres and Mode: Managing Genre’s Impossibility 58 3 Genre: Histories and Chronologies 61 4 Action and Models of Television Genre 64 5 Games, Gameplay and Spaces of Action/Adventure 67 6 Conclusion 69 References 70 Trespass: Genre, Author, and Play in the Discourse of Media Aesthetics 72 1 State of Theory: Genre Studies and Auteurism 75 2 Trespass and the Last Adventure 79 3 Blackness (Re)Assigned 87 4 Genre Politics as Media Aesthetics of Formalization 104 5 Conclusion: The Genius of the Genre System 108 References 114 Staging Revolutions: Hamilton. An American Musical, Genre Affordances, and the Political Dynamics of Cultural Circulation 117 1 The Genre Politics of Hamilton 117 2 The Event of Hamilton, Historiographic Metatheatre and the Question of Social Efficacy 126 3 Epilogue 134 References 138 Part II: Transmedial and Transnational Perspectives 141 A New Genre Arena? Questions of Genre in the Digital Age of Promotional Media 142 1 Introduction 142 2 Genre and Promotional Media 145 3 Working Genre in the Digital Age: Three Cases 153 The Making of a World 153 Tweeting about Family 162 Teasing the Familiar 165 4 Conclusion 171 References 172 Political Genres of Online Animation: Genre Theory, Animation Studies, and Digital Media 175 1 Introduction 175 2 Animation and Genre 177 3 Animation and Digital Media 178 4 Animation and Political Communication 181 5 Political Web Videos: A Starting Point 183 6 Genres of Political Online Animation 185 Two Outliers: Witness Videos and Vlogs 185 Animated Web Documentaries 186 Political Short and Feature Fictions 187 Animated Mobilization and Campaign Videos 188 Explainers and Visualizations 189 Animated Political Cartoons 190 7 Memes, Mods, Mash-Ups, and the Infinite Archive 192 8 Conclusion 194 References 196 Pan-Hispanic Folklore: Musical Co-productions between Francoist Spain and Latin America 200 1 Between Hollywood and Hispanoamericanismo: The Early Spanish-Language Sound Film 201 2 Transnational Patriotism: Hispanic Musical Co-productions 205 3 The Comedia Ranchera Meets the “españolada” 209 4 The Cine Tanguero Meets the “españolada” 212 5 A Fading Genre: Trans/National Folklore as Pastiche 214 References 216 Rethinking Romance 218 1 Introduction 218 2 The Romance Genre in Film Studies 219 3 Romance as Affective Experience 222 4 Mood, Mode and Genre: Romance and the Romantic 225 5 Analyzing Romance: Existential Feelings and Audiovisual Metaphors 228 6 Conclusion 232 References 233 Part III: Re-examining Genres in Film Studies 237 Zombies, Conspiracies, and Esthetics in Crisis: A Computational Engagement with Genre Esthetics 238 1 The Politics of Disruption 239 2 Scalable Viewing 241 3 Zombies 245 World War Z 246 REC 248 28 Days Later 251 4 Conspiracies 253 The Interpreter 253 The Ides of March 254 Il Divo 256 5 The Order of Disruption 259 References 263 State Genre between Censorship and Dialogue: The DEFA Anti-Fascist Film 267 1 The State Genre 267 2 Dialogicity as Historically Situated Film Production 274 3 Dialogue with and Demarcation from the USSR: Allegorizing 276 4 Dialogue with and Demarcation from the FRG: Psychological Subjects and Double Flashback 279 References 285 The Documentary as a Genre or Mode? A New Approach to Documentary Film Analysis through the Field of Meaning 288 1 Introduction 288 2 The Documentary Film as a “Queer” Genre 289 3 Other Ways of Categorization: Documentary as Gattung in German Film Studies: Advantages and Disadvantages 294 4 Roger Odin’s and Gérard Genette’s Suggestions from the Viewpoint of Pragma-Semiotics and Narratology 297 5 The Field of Meaning: A Method of Analyzing Documentary Films 300 References 308 Index 310 "This book reflects and analyzes the relationship between media and genre, focusing on both aesthetics and discursive meaning. It considers genres as having a decisive impact on media cultures, either in film, on TV, in computer games, comics or radio, on the level of production as well as reception. The book discusses the role of genres in media and cultural theory as a configuration of media artifacts that share specific aesthetic characteristics. It also reflects genre as a concept of categorization of media artifacts with which the latter can be analyzed under terms depending on a specific historical situation or cultural context. A special focus is placed on trans-media perspectives. Even as genres develop their own traditions within one medium, they reach beyond a media-specific horizon, necessitating a double perspective that considers the distinct recourse to genre within a medium as well as the trans-media circulation and adaption of genres."--Back cover