People naturally make sense of the world by "simplifying" it. They are constantly and subconsciously classifying and grouping each object, event or action that takes place. Thus genres are born. The word genre is a term used to state a group of things that share the same characteristics or they are similar in looks or part of a family of similar objects.
Example when we watch a movie with spacecrafts, the moon, aliens, stars ect. And we watch another movie with UFO's, alien planets, satellites, space stations, galaxies, ect, we automatically and almost subconsciously group the two films together, seeing them as similar and putting them in a genre, a science fiction genre.
So the one of the main principles of generic classification would be that things can be grouped together due to their similarity and likeness. If something doesn't fit in it is either regarded as a strange or odd movie, or a new category is made to suit it.
David Prowse as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes ...
Ralph McQuarrie during his visit to ILM on 2/25/08
Star Wars - Darth VaderStanley John Solomon says a genre all genres have similar elements, the elements which group them, Solomon says genres have cores, Generic cores.
By this he is talking about the factors that define the genre as being, example a western. A western genre must have certain "elements" which makes it a western. The iconography and horizons of expectation are two main elements that help define the genre of a film. Example the iconography of a western genre would be the cowboy hats, horses, wide open planes, guns and shoot outs. And in a Science Fiction genre the iconography would the use of special effects, Orchestral sound tracks, space crafts ect. These factors of iconography also set the horizon of expectation. The horizon of expectation is the automatic thought of what the movie would be like to watch due to...