GENRE THEORY

STEVE NEALE 

Neale's belief is that genre is constantly evolving. The main stages in genre are:

1. Form finding itself 
2. The classic 
3. Stretching genre boundaries
4. Parody
5. Homage 

Applying the horror genre to these  steps: 

1. Psycho 
2. Halloween
3. Nightmare on Elm Street 
4. Scary Movie 
5. Scream 

ANDRE BASLIN 

Baslin introduced the idea of genre theory by looking at Westerns in the 1950's. He was the first to look at significant advantages of genre from the point of view of institutional perspective. For example the re use of sets, props etc. He felt genre was practical, it makes sense and people like categories. 

ROBERT STAM 

Stam believes genre is so hard to define that it does not even exist. It is a concept made up by theorists and critics. The four main problems with genre are: 

• extension (breadth or narrowness of labels) 
• normativism 
• monalithic 
• bioligism