This has undoubtedly come up before, but does anyone have a good
definition of film genre?  I have just completed an exhaustive literature
review on film genre theory (not criticism/endless self-reflexive babbling/
interpretation) as a means of understanding film as a communication process,
and continue to be dumbstruck (I know, how can you tell the difference?) at
the lack of theoretical grounding for genre theory.  Most theoretical
definitions fault toward the tautological, and most interpretations make
grand assumptions and contain no theoretical grounding.  The closest I
can get to a theory is:  There are certain groups of films that
contain similar and familiar patterns of icons and conventions (but not
necessarily plots) that will be promoted as similar by the movie industry
and understood as similar by audiences.  Seems pretty pathetic.  Any thoughts?
 
arthur