Author: [log in to unmask] Date: 12/17/94 12:54 AM [Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).] ~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. The best book on genre that I know is John Cawelti's ADVENTURE, MYSTERY, AND ROMANCE (UChicago, 1976). In my own, AMERICAN RELIGIOUS AND BIBLICAL SPECTACULARS, (Praeger, 1992) I try to deal with it with reference to films such as The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur. Gerald Forshey Daley College City Colleges of Chicago