The document discusses several theorists' perspectives on genre in horror films. Jacques Derrida's theory states that texts participate in genres rather than belonging to them fully. Charaudeau and Maingueneau assert that genre can be determined through a text's linguistic function, formal traits, organization, and relationship to communicative situation. Stephen Prince argues that horror films explore fundamental human questions beyond any particular time period, making the genre more profound than others.
2. Jacques Derrida
• Jacques Derrida’s theory articulates that individual
texts participate in, rather than belong to certain
genres. He does this by demonstrating that ‘the
mark of genre’ is not itself a member of a genre or
type. Thus, the same characteristic that signifies
genre defies classification in the same way.
3. Charaudeau + Maingueneau
• The genre theory of Charaudeau + Maingueneau
states that genre can be determined through four
different analytic conceptualizations. They state
that genre is determined by its :
• 1 )Linguistic function
• 2) Formal traits
• 3) Textual organization
• 4) Relation of communicative situation to formal
and organisational traits of the text.
4. Stephen Prince
• Theorist Stephen Prince states that “like other genre movies, any given
horror film will convey synchronic association, ideological, and social
messages that are a part of a certain period or historical moment. One
can analyse films in terms of these periods or moments, much like they
can do with gangster movies. But unlike this genre, horror also goes
deeper, to explore more fundamental questions about the nature of
human existence, and other questions that, in some profound ways, go
beyond culture and society as these are organized in any given form or
period.”
• From this, we understand that Prince feels that the horror genre is an
elite genre within the field of film, as it is the most realistic, and some
of concepts and ideas placed into films in the genre are relative to ‘real
life’.
