Introduction: Genre theories confused, lots of them, contested, etc. (history) Aim: looking at usefulness of g.t.

t.; working from texts outwards, why because of the expansive nature of genre criticism Justify genre theory for studying postmodernism modernist and postmodernist approaches Choice of texts also justify use of g.t. for studying both literature and film In which way are these texts postmodern (eg literally after what is considered the modernist period? Hard to justify) and how are the two linked Theme and genre theory (in terms of their links, I mean)

Genre is one of the most disjointed and widely contested issues in modern arts criticism. Since the early nineteenth century academics, critics and theorists have been questioning and debating its meaning, use and value as a method of creating and analysing art, particularly with regards to literary texts and more recently visual media. Two hundred years on, genre study is decidedly incoherent. As art and criticism progress, it expands to accommodate new artistic movements, new media and the theories, genres, and sub-genres that are created in their paths. Genres also emerge, as structuralist theoretician Tzvetan Todorov points out, [Q]uite simply from other genres. He goes on to say, [A] new genre is always the transformation of an earlier one, or of several: by inversion, by displacement, by combination and as such genre

study is a system in constant formation1.

The extensiveness now of genre study means that as a method for basic classification it is impossible to prescribe one singular genre to a text, for example, as that text will almost certainly fit at least one other of the hundreds of classifications that have become available. As Jacques Derrida writes, every text participates in one or several genres yet such participation never amounts to belonging2. This highlights another important if obvious idea: that genres, simply being constructed classifications, exist outside of texts. They are, as Ralph Cohen explains, constructed by authors, audiences, and critics in order to serve communicative purposes3. Whether those authors (or artists, or film makers) contest the labelling imposed upon their work by its participation in a genre or not, they cannot escape the fact that the expectations created by the labels will be brought to their work by a reader, who, if he or she attempted to explain the work to another, would more than likely use. Tremper Longman explains that the author is bound by previous genres and what constitutes them, as

something that is totally unprecedented is incommunicable a text that bears no similarities (structure, content, etc.) with anything previously written (or spoken) cannot be understood by a reader4,

Longman suggests that by applying these generic expectations to the text a

1

Todorov, T. The Origins of Genres in Modern Genre Theory, ed. D. Duff (Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.) 2000 p. 197 2 Derrida, J. The Law of Genre in Modern Genre Theory, ed. D. Duff (Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.) 2000 p. 224 3 Ralph Cohen quoted in Marjorie Perloff, Introduction in Postmodern Genres ed. Perloff (Norman: Oklahoma University Press) 1989, p. 6 4 Longman, T. Fictional Akkadian autobiography: a generic and comparative study (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns) 1991 p. 7

reader can extract the texts meaning5 (or meanings, presumably). The theory and origin of genres then is entangled

Generic promiscuity is generally thought of as a basic facet of both modernist and postmodernist discourses. Intensely self-aware movements, both are concerned with blurring genre boundaries and defying distinctions; however, each has a different attitude. Modernism, as Marjorie Perloff explains, was preoccupied with the renewal or adaptation of the traditional genres6, intended to elevate classic works of art; whereas postmodernist artists want to abolish these boundaries altogether, dismissing genre as anachronistic and irrelevant7 and thereby celebrating a sense of unmediated incoherence in their work. This does not, as weve seen, stop a reader from using genre to criticise and rightly so; as Cohen states, one piece of writing tends to be based on other pieces8. He goes on to say that a genre offers the most extensive procedure for understanding a text, allowing us to go beyond simple classification of works to help provide valuable insights about the genre of genre theory itself9. In order to come to an understanding of, say, the development and current state of genre, to attempt an explanation of why particular genres have arisen or disappeared into the ether, a critic must have the history of genre theory to hand if only in order to use its terms of reference. Genre critics that completely dismiss postmodernism as outside the field of genre study, Cohen rightly points out, deprive themselves of
5 6

ibid. p. 15 Perloff, M. Introduction in Postmodern Genres, ed. M. Perloff (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press) 1989 p. 3 7 ibid. 8 Cohen, R. Do Postmodern Genres Exist? in Postmodern Genres, ed. M. Perloff (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press) 1989 p. 14 9 ibid.

explanatory tools10. So, it would be the most productive to try and incorporate terms and ideas from a variety of genre theories that have arisen over the years, but without wanting to close off too many aspects of the texts by keeping to one or another in particular.

In this essay Id like to examine whether genre theory is indeed useful to understanding more fully postmodernist discourses, through analysis of Derek Jarmans 1987 film The Last of England11 and book Kicking The Pricks12 (published shortly after its release); and Stewart Homes Down and Out in Shoreditch and Hoxton13, 2004. Both Jarman and Home have personal concerns about displacement as a result of physically and socially changing geographies. For Jarman, it was anger at the demolition of traditional London under Thatchers destructive, neoliberal regime, as Turner explains:

the spirit of resistance and anger expressed is deeply connected to an understanding and knowledge of specific London sites and their ongoing, ideologically motivated transformations under Thatcher.14

This directly affected him, too, as he was constantly relocated throughout his life in London due to the destruction of the Victorian warehouses he inhabited, in accordance with government policies of regeneration that would see them replaced by expensive commercial and residential projects. Home has similar contentions, though more specifically regarding the gentrification
10 11

ibid. p. 19 Jarman, D. (Director) The Last of England [DVD film] (London: Second Sight) 2004 12 Jarman, D. Kicking The Pricks (London: Vintage) 1996 13 Home, S. Down and Out in Shoreditch and Hoxton (London: The Do-Not Press) 2004 14 Turner, M. Derek Jarman in the Docklands in Taking Place: Location and Moving Image, eds. J. D. Rhodes and E. Gorfinkel (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press) 2011, p. 78

of East London in the late 1990s and early 2000s; particularly the areas surround Shoreditch and Hoxton, where he himself lives. He objects quite explicitly during interviews and within his novels to the effects of swanky conversions and their ever-complaining yuppie inhabitants on local, longstanding businesses and trades, in particular prostitution, and also on community tensions in the area15. I am hoping to see if and how their various formal and thematic concerns reflect their social and political ones.

While I will keep some basic ideas surrounding the history of genre study in mind when analysing the works, it would be more interesting to view each with as open a mind as possible than to try and fit them into a specific perspective, an approach that allows looking at the film and the book in the same light. As there are virtually limitless examples of genre, it would be unproductive to try to use all of these as a reference point pool when talking about these works, but I will try to include a variety of denotations. These will mainly include cultural and creative definitions, such as paintings, films or books; formal definitions, such as prose or poetry; and thematic definitions, such as horror or fantasy.

15

Home, S. Down and Dirty: Stewart Home speaks to Flux about heroes, antiheroes and his novel Down & Out in Shoreditch and Hoxton [Online interview] Flux Magazine c. 2004