Genre Study (Discussion)

Jeremy Butler groups genre definitions into three categories: by audience response, by style, and by subject matter. And Jane Feuer, in the Channels chapter on genre, specifies three approaches to genre: the aesthetic, the ritual, and the ideological. She then summarizes the approaches to the sitcom of David Grote, Horace Newcomb and David Marc -- followed by her own genre analysis.

Group 4

1. Using Grote's approach, explain:
   1. Which of Butler's groups it falls into.
   2. Which of Feuer's groups it falls into.
2. Apply his approach to the "Rudy's Sick" episode of The Cosby Show. What sort of questions would you ask about the ep? What conclusions might your analysis draw?

Group 1

1. Using Newcomb's approach, explain:
   1. Which of Butler's groups it falls into.
   2. Which of Feuer's groups it falls into.
2. Apply his approach to the "Rudy's Sick" episode of The Cosby Show. What sort of questions would you ask about the ep? What conclusions might your analysis draw?

Group 2

1. Using Marc's approach, explain:
   1. Which of Butler's groups it falls into.
   2. Which of Feuer's groups it falls into.
2. Apply his approach to the "Rudy's Sick" episode of The Cosby Show. What sort of questions would you ask about the ep? What conclusions might your analysis draw?

Group 3

1. Using Geoffrey Hurd's approach (from Television), explain:
   1. Which of Butler's groups it falls into.
   2. Which of Feuer's groups it falls into.
2. Apply his approach to the "Rudy's Sick" episode of The Cosby Show. What sort of questions would you ask about the ep? What conclusions might your analysis draw? Do you see any of Hurd's narrative functions in it?

All groups

1. How does Feuer's own approach to genre and The Mary Tyler Moore Show differ from Grote, Newcomb, Marc, or Hurd (pick the one you examined above)?
2. How does Feuer feel the genre changed in the 1970s?
3. What are the strength(s) of genre analysis? What are the weaknesses of this approach?

Bibliography

1. Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.
2. Robert C. Allen, Channels of Discourse, Reassembled, second edition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992).

External links

• Chapter 13 illustrations