Genre Theories & Ideas

Structuralism

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-barthes-1/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTGXQKgFYxU

Roland Barthes (1974) argued that there are narrative codes and he divided them in to

three types

1. Action codes

The text has codes that the audience can recognise to be a specific genre and are commonly part of that genre’s narrative. For an action film, this would be fighting, chase sequences, and explosions.

2. Enigmatic codesThe plot is structured around a series of questions maintaining the audience’s interest in the text. For example, in a detective based drama, the audience have to keep guessing who the killer is, while in a soap, the audience have to keep guessing what is going to happen to the characters next.

3. Symbolic codes

This includes binary opposites, such as good vs evil, criminal vs justice, hero vs villain etc.