Genre and Narrative Theory: Recognising the Pattern

Two words, one habit

Genre and narrative sound like two different topics, but underneath they are the same habit: an audience recognising a pattern. A viewer knows a talent show is a talent show within seconds, because the bright stage, the panel and the countdown are all things they have seen before. A reader knows the stranger who helps the hero is a helper for the same reason. Both are recognition, and recognition depends on repetition: the pattern has to be familiar before it can be spotted. Here is the twist that makes this worth studying. A pattern is only interesting because it can be broken. If every text in a genre were identical there would be no reason to watch a new one. So the whole of this topic, repetition and variation, hybridity, intertextuality and the character roles derived from Propp, comes down to one idea: producers build a pattern the audience knows, then bend it.

Words for pattern and story

Learn what each of these means before you use it.

Name the pattern at work

A viewer starts a show and within seconds knows it is a talent contest, because the stage, the panel and the countdown are all things they have seen many times before. What does this quick recognition tell you about how genre works?

• Genre works by repeating features the audience already knows
• Genre works by avoiding any repeated features
• Genre is decided only by the individual viewer
• Genre exists only in books, not in shows

Repetition against variation

A genre lives on two forces at once, and a strong answer holds both in view rather than just one.

How to read a pattern

When you analyse a text for genre or narrative, do not just list what is there. Ask two questions in order. First, what pattern is the audience being invited to recognise, meaning which familiar features are in play. Second, and this is where the marks are, what does the text do WITH that pattern: does it deliver it straight, bend it, mix it with another, or point to a text the audience already knows. A weak answer stops at spotting the pattern. A strong answer always moves on to the effect of keeping it or breaking it, because that is where meaning and pleasure for the audience come from. Name the pattern, then name what is done to it.

Match the idea to what it does

Order how a genre is used

Put the steps a producer takes when they use a genre in a sensible order.

• Set up the familiar conventions of the genre
• The audience recognises the genre from those conventions
• Bend or break one convention to create a variation
• That variation creates meaning or surprise for the audience

Spot the true genre facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

• Repetition is what lets an audience recognise a genre quickly
• Variation only works because the audience already expects the pattern
• A genre stays interesting by making every text identical
• A genre never changes once it has formed

Count the ideas

This module works with 4 ideas from genre and narrative theory: repetition and variation, hybridity, intertextuality, and the character roles derived from Propp. You have looked closely at 1 of them so far. Subtract to find how many of the 4 are left to master.

Complete the pattern facts

The familiar features an audience expects in a genre are its _____. The fresh twist that makes one text stand out from the rest is called _____. Mixing two genres together in one text is called _____. When a text refers to another text the audience already knows, that is _____.

A film that borrows

Picture a superhero film that is also, clearly, a comedy. The moment the audience senses both at once, hybridity is at work: the film is being read through two genres, and the fun comes from how they rub against each other. Now picture a shot in that same film framed exactly like a famous painting the audience half-remembers. That is a text pointing at another text, and it rewards the viewer who catches the reference with a small jolt of recognition. Neither trick would land on a viewer who knew no other films. Both work only because the patterns are already in the audience from everything they have watched before, which is the whole point: a producer can borrow and bend precisely because the audience recognises what is being borrowed and bent.

Build the analysis

Choose the words that complete this rule about how a genre works.

Read the media text

Read each case and choose the best analysis, then think about why.

• A crime drama opens with all the usual conventions, then lets the detective fail and the criminal escape. What is the strongest thing to say about that ending?
• A new show blends the cooking-competition format with the haunted-house horror look. How should you analyse it?
• A trailer is shot to look exactly like a famous scene many viewers will recognise. What is the point of doing that?

The recognisable and the fresh

Select the TWO statements that fit the idea that genre and narrative both work by recognising a pattern.

• A character role such as the helper is recognised because audiences have met it before
• Breaking a convention only creates an effect because the audience expected it
• A strong text avoids every familiar pattern entirely
• Character roles are assigned at random with no pattern

Explain genre and narrative

A friend is revising Media Studies and thinks genre and narrative are two separate things to memorise. Explain how they are really the same idea, using the terms from this module.

• Explain what a genre is and what a convention is
• Explain how repetition and variation work together in a genre
• Explain what hybridity and intertextuality are, with a generic example of each
• Explain how a character role derived from Propp is recognised the same way a convention is
• Finish by explaining why a pattern has to be familiar before breaking it can mean anything