Genre Theory, Hybridity and Intertextuality

Genres are not fixed

A genre is a type of media text, such as horror or romance, that audiences recognise from its shared features. But genres are not sealed boxes. They repeat familiar features and vary them, they mix together into hybrids, and they refer to one another. This module unpacks all of that.

Four key ideas

These four words run through genre theory.

Match the genre

What is a hybrid genre?

What does it mean to call a media text a hybrid genre?

• It mixes two or more genres together
• It has no genre at all
• It is simply the most popular genre
• It is a genre that never changes

Repetition and variation

Genres survive by balancing the familiar with the fresh.

Match the hybrid

Why genres blend

Producers mix and evolve genres to keep audiences interested and to reach new ones. A hybrid can offer the pleasures of two genres at once, which can also help a product sell to a wider audience.

Complete the theory

A _____ is a type of media text with shared _____. Genres repeat familiar features but add _____ to stay fresh. When a text mixes two genres it is a _____ genre. When one text refers to another, that is _____.

True about genre

Which of these statements about genre are true? Choose all that apply.

• Genres share recognisable conventions
• Genres can mix to form hybrids
• Genres change and evolve over time
• Every text belongs to only one fixed genre
• Genres never use familiar features

Spot the hybridity

Tap the two examples that show hybridity, where genres are mixed.

• A film mixes horror and comedy in one story.
• A show combines a crime drama with a sitcom.
• A film includes a nod to a famous older movie.
• A poster copies the style of a classic album cover.

How a genre evolves

Put the way a genre changes over time into a sensible order.

• A genre begins with a set of conventions
• Many texts repeat those conventions
• Producers add variations to stand out
• Some texts blend in another genre
• Over time the genre changes and evolves

Spot the technique

A new film includes a scene that clearly refers to a famous older film. What is this an example of?

• Intertextuality
• Hybridity
• Denotation
• A single genre

Classify the text

Work out the genre features of one media text, stage by stage.

• A media text has spaceships, aliens and future technology. Which genre is it mainly?
• The same text also has a developing love story running through it. What does adding romance make it?
• One scene deliberately copies a famous shot from another well-known film. What is that?

Genre, and the hybrid

Explain what genre theory means, and give an example of a hybrid genre and how it mixes two genres.

• Explain what a genre is and how conventions work
• Explain repetition and variation
• Name a hybrid genre and the two genres it mixes