Generic Canons: Genre, History and Memory Edited by Lincoln Geraghty and Mark Jancovich Histories of science fiction often discuss Metropolis as a classic text within the genre but the term science fiction wasn't invented until several years after its release. The term has therefore retrospectively applied to the film but how was it generically identified before the invention of the term? Indeed, even once they have been invented, generic terms change meaning over time. As James Naremore has shown, the meaning of film noir was something very different in the late 1940s to the meaning of the term in the late 1950s. In the process, films shift meaning and status. Many films are derided on release as symptoms of generic degeneration, only to be refigured by later periods as classics or even as radical transformations of the genre. The reverse is also true: films such as The Blair Witch Project have been praised as important and innovative on their release only to look increasingly irrelevant in retrospect. The following collection aims to examine the processes through which generic histories and memories have been constructed and reconstructed, and to offer understandings of how genres and generic texts have been understood in other periods. The collection is interested in contributions on film and television but will consider other medium such as fiction, comics and computer games. The topics discussed might include some of the following: * How were specific films understood before the invention of the terms by which they are currently identified? * How have generic terms changed meaning over time, or what did specific terms mean at specific moments? * What was the meaning and significance of generic terms that have now fallen out of use or been forgotten all together? * What is the relationship of genre terms to other types of classification? Children's film and television often features science fiction, horror and fantasy but these productions rarely feature in accounts of these genres, which tend to privilege 'adult' entertainment. Alternatively, why do certain forms of children's entertainment become redefined as classics? * How have film industries understood or used generic terms historically? As Handel shows, the industry used generic terms in the 1940s but they were very different to those used today by academics and fans. * How does marketing, exhibition and scheduling work generically? For example, what are the processes of classification involved in the creation of generically identified channels such as the Sci-Fi Channel or the Horror Channel on satellite and cable; what are the processes through which they are scheduled; and what impact does this have on the meaning of generic terms? * How are these processes related to technology? Many emerging technological services, such as Tivo and Sky plus, offer select films and television programs to the consumer. In other words, they make suggestions, and sometimes even decisions, about the texts that viewers might like to watch, but such decisions are based on the technological identification of these texts generically. Who identifies these texts; how does the technology work; and what are their effects on viewing choices and more general understandings of genre? Schedule for completion: Please send proposals or finished articles to both editors by December 1st 2004 Acceptance or rejection will be confirmed by 1 February 2005 Finished articles will then be due no later than 1 July 2005 Requests for revisions will be sent by 1 September 2005 Revisions will be due no later than 1 December 2005 Submission of final manuscript due 1 April 2006 Editors Lincoln Geraghty Institute of Film Studies School of American Studies University of Nottingham Nottingham NG7 2RD United Kingdom Email: [log in to unmask] Mark Jancovich 2.45 Arts Building Film and Television Studies University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom. Tel: 01603 592787 Email: [log in to unmask] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu