Film Genre

The study of genre offers a qualitative window onto how audiences perceive and evaluate cinematic form and content. Through the analysis of especially characteristic films, the course explores key topics in genre studies: notions of popular and cultural value, how genres move across and between different media, and the ways that industrial, social, technological, and aesthetic factors shape the development, circulation, and reception of a film genre. Various “case-studies” are explored from year-to-year and may include: film noir, comedy, the musical, the Western, science fiction, the road movie and others.