#brokeback mountain is a subversion of a subversion of a subversion of a western adapted to a modern audience

[noshowjericho]

I'm genuinely sorry to the people caught with these stray bullets but someone has to say it: Cowboy aus based of brokeback mountain are shit. I don't blame people for doing them because I know how fun the cowboy aesthetic can be and how a lot of people's only exposure to the western genre has been through brokeback mountain but I swear if I see another person slap a cowboy hat on a random dude and call it western I'm gonna cry.

[pooja-r-bi]

NOVEMBER: FIRST WEEK

Hello people! This week we studied about genre theories and representation theories.

 What is genre?

Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time.

GENRE THEORIES

John Hartley – According to john Hartley Genre is not confined to the restrictions of itself - texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre, as John Hartley states. The same text, for example, Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', can be adapted to fit multiple genres i.e. musical, drama, romantic. This shows how dynamic the forms and functions of a genre are as the same text can hybridize these to create an original piece of text. The conventions can change; psychological thrillers can hybridize different elements such as crime, drama, realism etc. 

RICK ALTMAN - Rick Altman suggests that genres are typically defined by their use of media language and codes or certain ideologies and narratives. Because of these shared characteristics, audiences are able to base their preconceptions of films on whether or not they enjoyed a film of the same genre in the past, making it easy for audiences to decide whether or not to watch a particular film.

Steve Neale – He described Genre as Repetition and Difference: “Genre is familiar to audiences through the repetition of conventions like a physically strong, dynamic, violent, male hero in Action Adventure Video Games like Assassin’s Creed and GTAV but is challenged by a female lead character in Tomb Raider and Beyond: Two Souls. Repetition and Difference, meaning that an audience may enjoy observing how the conventions of a genre are manipulated from what they are used to. He adds that “difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” as mere repetition would not attract an audience. When films deviate from the clichéd formula of a genre, it results in a more engaging and immersive experience for the viewer. Although, this enjoyment from the subversion of a genre stems from the audiences’ familiarity with the typical conventions and style of that genre first. In the past, genre was often regarded as fixed forms, but this has changed over time and so the forms and functions of genre are more dynamic than they used to be..

David Buckingham – According to David Buckingham  Genre in Constant Process of Negotiation and Change: “Genre must respond to socio-economic and cultural change e.g. Brokeback Mountain has elements of the western (setting, objects and props, dress code) to develop an emotive romance about two men and their love for each other”. David Buckingham supported Steve Neal’s idea by suggesting that genre is “in a constant process of negotiation and change”, meaning that the codes and conventions of a genre may differ from film to film and are don’t adhere to a rigid formula as texts have in the past. 

Tom Ryall - Tom Ryall argued that genre is a cognitive repository of images, sounds, stories, characters, and expectations, meaning that it provides a formula that is either enjoyed or not enjoyed by an audience. Sometimes, the iconographies of a media text are enough to indicate the genre; however, it is often a conjunction of iconographies that create something that we can identify as belonging to a particular genre.

What is representation?

Representation refers to how a film portrays certain types of people or communities. There are a number of groups who are underrepresented in most media texts. They include women, people of color, LBGTQA+ people, people with a range of body shapes and types, people different religions etc. There has been a steady increase of diversity in media, but progress has been long and slow.  

REPRESENTATION THEORIES

John Berger- “man looks, woman appears”- women are there solely for the objectification of women within all platforms of media 

Walter Lippman- He suggests that a key aspect of representation is stereotype as they are an ordinary process that allows society to make sense of them. He also argues that stereotypes are connotations regarding a particular group into simple and easy recognizable schemata.

Laura Mulvey- “The male gaze theory” the films represent women as passive objects of male audience are forced to watch women from the point of view of a heterosexual male.

Stuart Hall- he describes representation as a process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between audience by the use of language, signs and images which represent certain things.