in a class of its own
the american teen movie
From this article, I learned that genre isn't fixed and is either created or developed as a result of historical, social, political and economic influences. For example, 'the american teen movie'. This genre / distinct social identity of teenagers wasn't exactly defined before its birth after the 'baby boom' after the Second World War. Many teen movies of this time were based on an outsider (or someone different than the dominant population) to try to fit in then eventually be accepted for their uniqueness. Examples of these movies are Mean Girls, Pretty in Pink and Grease. Genre development also leads to ideas such as hybrid genres, as can be seen in Carrie, where the ending leads to the destruction of their town itself and the murder of the people within it ('high school horror'). However, more recent films 'bend' the stereotypical American high school movie genre rules which can interest the audience as they get to view something unexpected and/or realistic. An example of this is Elephant which was a movie initially made to highlight the Columbine High School massacre but can easily be linked to how teens behave, act and feel in real life. It veered away from the classic narrative structure of previous teen movies and made something, for lack of better words, 'raw' and unfiltered. To summarise, I learned that genres can easily be developed and created by whatever is going on around us and due to the change in attitudes of the audience and events, sub or 'hybrid' genres can be made as a result.
I think this could link to my studies as this concept is linked with Todorov's theory of Narrative Structure as well as Neal's Genre theory.
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