Genre theory reading

What I have learnt from these books:
Genre Theory: The Horror Film, An Introduction to Genre Theory by Daniel Chandler.

Horror films are ultimately dark and scary, they are supposed to scare and 'horrify' us, and create a fear of death as well as entertain us. Lawrence Grossberg created three genre theories, as the word 'genre' can be defined in many ways. The first theory defines genre "by a shared set of conventions" - Grossberg. The conventions that he means here are things like camera work, sound and lighting. f course, a common convention in the horror genre is low-key lighting, and the scariest movies are set at night time. The camera techniques are also important in 'creating fear' in the audience. For example, a low angled shot with lighting from the bottom onto a man's face would create a scary image, thus creating fear in the audience. Sound also helps to create fear and also prepares the audience for a 'frightening scene'. For example, eerie music followed by a crescendo.

The second genre theory is "the underlying structure of values that the genre puts into play" (Grossberg). This could mean that the audience essentially come to watch the movie with expectations. For example, they may expect there to be monsters or gory scenes. These expectations allow the audience to feel frightened as they are expecting to be frightened by specific scenes. With these expectations, the audience are both entertained and scared.

In Grossberg's third theory, he outlines the notion that "genres can be seen as articulations of text that define a particular set of intertextual relations". We can interpret this as genres being seen as the art of intertextuality. It allows us to recognise genres through meanings. Different elements are constantly being added to the horror genre and so it cannot be define easily.

Nowadays horror movies include the fears such as the end of the world; They consider human fear in order to create the 'horror' of horror movies.

I've learnt that genre cannot be defined easily. Genre has a set of meanings and it is widely defined by many people. It doesn't really have one actual meaning. Genres can be based on the content of the film / product, or it can be how the television and media want to put it.
"A genre is ultimately the abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world" - Jane Feuer 1992). This can mean that genre again, is widely defined. The meaning can change and be played with. People can define genre however they want and in whatever way. It is all about imagination and creativity, and it is not something that exists in reality that you can physically feel or touch. The definition of genre is made in one's own mind.
David Buckingham also says that "genre is not simply 'given' by culture: rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change". Again, the aspects of genre is always changing.
How we define genre can also depend on our purposes.

Specific genres however, can be easily recognised. For example, the comedy genre. Genres can be identified based on conventions. For example, horror and blood/gore, or comedy and jokes. There can be mixed genres such as comedy thrillers.
The features of a product can also define genre, such as the mise-en-scene.

Marxist commentators say that genre "positions the audience in order to neutralise the ideologies which are embedded in the text" (Feuer). This tells us that the ideologies represented influence the audience's perspective of things?

Overall, genre cannot be defined easily.