There
are occasions when you have to choose from the wide array of options to make
certain choices. These choices somehow depend on or reflect on our positions.
Where are we speaking from and who we are? Such selection marks a step in
forming a specific meaning. The important aspect of this process is that these
options and their selection, the exercise of their practices resonate with
people. It decides the communication with the self and its tendency. These
choices are definitive in order to generate a social response. But follow a
specific mechanism of that has categories. The Greek word generous gave out genres-
meaning categories, modes, options or tools. These options or categories form
the set of styles in audio, visual, written or spoken mode of meaning. As these
meanings add value and truth to any entity; genres come out as a crucial tool
to differentiate and hence, evaluate the meaning.
It
was Plato who came out with the concept of categorization depending on its
nature and implementation. It began with the theory of mimesis that spoke about
the imitation behind the work of art; as a painter ‘mimics’ scenic beauty and
reproduces it with his impression on canvas. Plato states in Ion, that poetry is the art
of divine madness or inspiration. Because the poet is a subject to this divine
madness and therefore it is not his/her function to convey the truth. The truth
that the poet or the artist finds is therefore removed from reality making a work
of art a mere imitation. Plato’s categorization thus outlined the relation
between work and its impression. The work of art had a specific realm in which
it connected the codes of resemblances of behavior. The very act of resemblance
provided a mirror image that evaluated the impression of art on its audience.
It was Aristotle, Plato’s disciple and teacher to Alexander the great; who in
324 BC figured out the exact framework for this categorization based on the
notions of tragic and comic components of the works of literature in those
times. Aristotle linked the impact of these works and their psychological
mechanism. The arousal of tragedy, response to comedy and influence of heroism
has been used effectively to categorize their definitive impacts. This link has
provided the necessary paradigm of the actions and impacts, rather than the
impressions.
Genres
then underwent a surgery that modified its references with their relevant
impacts over the time. Characters were evaluated on the basis of particular
‘choices’ that derived their rise and fall. A certain kind of choices and their
performances established a school of thought (or so to say) that formulated
referent meanings. Douglas Kellner writes in his essay Television Images, Codes and
Messages, that “[…] a genre,
once established, dictates the basic conditions of a cultural production and
reception. For example, crime dramas
have a violent crime, a search for its perpetrators, and often a chase, fight,
or bloody elimination of the criminal, communicating the message that ‘crime
does not pay’ […]” Similarly, all media- film, television, advertisements, so
on and so forth; are based on texts, which all fall into various categories or
genres. The scholarly interest in genres
has developed in recent years because we have become concerned about how genres
affect the creation of television programs, like family drama, crime
investigation and what are the social, cultural and political implications of
different genres may be. These attempts of fixing and de-fixing of stories/
texts show how genres begin and evolve. Why genres are fused into one another
to form a newer impression and why some genres, such as the western, died out after years of great
popularity. The evolution of a genre as
a term of reference and its eventual dwindling is certainly a result of
periodic amendment of choices. Genres, as categories or modes, change their
routes and touch upon newer territories of meanings. Then why are we familiar
with genres? It is because we are
able to identify the similarities, distinctions and symbols that are born out
of the codes which formulate our actions and their meanings. The actions,
stemming out of these imitations
align themselves in a pattern that maps and re- maps our understanding for
certain thing. Then the subjects, conventions, settings and themes are defined
where we find ourselves in them as characters. We find ourselves in this act of
justifying actions, categories of certain behaviors and form a meaning.
Amol Jadhav
Assistant Professor
Amol
is an independent filmmaker with an academics specialization in film language,
criticism & technique. He owns an independent production house that
produces short films documentaries & features films, which have been
featured in various reputed film festivals across the globe. He has combined
cinema on academics and professional levels thus giving it a new paradigm.
