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An introduction to genre analysis, this highly readable volume presents key concepts in an accessible manner for undergraduate courses in film, TV, media criticism and cultural studies. The texts are representative of horror, science fiction, spy, classic detective, and tough guy detective genres, and readers may make their own analyses of texts based on the methods explained and the examples offered.
List of contents
PART ONE: THEORIES
On the Structure of Genres
Propp, de Saussure and the Narrative
Formulas and Texts
Genre Theory
Genre, Society and Culture
The Classical Mystery
A Case Study
PART TWO: TEXTS
Murder on the Orient Expressf003 The Maltese Falcon
The Hard-Boiled Detective Novel
f003 Dr No
f003 War of the Worlds
Frankenstein The New Prometheus
Conclusions
About the author
Arthur Asa Berger is Professor Emeritus of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University, where he taught between 1965 and 2003. He has published more than 100 articles, numerous book reviews, and more than 60 books. Among his latest books are the third edition of Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (2013), The Academic Writer’s Toolkit: A User’s Manual (2008), What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture (2009), Bali Tourism (2013), Tourism in Japan: An Ethno-Semiotic Analysis (2010), The Culture Theorist’s Book of Quotations (2010), and The Objects of Our Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture (2010). He has also written a number of academic mysteries such as Durkheim is Dead: Sherlock Holmes is Introduced to Sociological Theory (2003) and Mistake in Identity: A Cultural Studies Murder Mystery (2005). His books have been translated into eight languages and thirteen of his books have been translated into Chinese.
