Approaches to defining the film genre. Its study and identification of attributive features

The subject of this article is the film genre. The concept of "genre" implies some commonality among artistic works of various forms, from painting to cinema. This term, despite its seeming simplicity, nonetheless raises numerous debates in academic circles. As mentioned above, despite the long history of studying this issue, there is still no unified, established genre system or even a dominant method. Each new generation of researchers proposes its own approach to solving this problem. However, the large number of scientific works only produces a polyvariant genre structure. There are many fragmented individual opinions and a lack of a single, logically coherent system. This is primarily explained by the complexity of the task at hand. The selection of criteria necessary to unite certain works into a commonality can vary greatly depending on the author's approach to solving this issue. This also gives rise to the problem concerning numerous individual opinions, each of which, in most cases, meets the criteria of truth. The problem field outlined by the author does not suggest any solution to the stated task other than resorting to a systematic approach. By employing systematically ordered yet diverse methods for selecting criteria that characterize genres, it becomes possible to approach a solution to this question. The work also utilizes description and analysis, as well as the inductive method. To date, there are numerous approaches to defining film genre. This is, in turn, due to the vast number of factors that must be considered when systematizing a particular type of artistic work. Furthermore, it is important to consider the researcher’s personality, as it determines the angle, direction, methodology, etc. The selection of criteria that limit and narrow the studied commonality depends on this, because without this "optics," the number of variables increases to incredible sizes and goes beyond the scope of most, if not all, scientific works. An attempt to summarize the main points proposed by the researchers chosen by the author of this article and their visual representation will allow us to move closer to creating a universal model applicable to any commonality of film works, which underscores the relevance of the issue at hand.

cinema, genre, theory, screen arts, film genre, genre theory, cinema theory, film analysis, genre boundaries, film studies