The Question of Genre in Cult Film and Fandom: Between Contract and Discourse

Compared with concepts such as authorship, genre has had a more stolid and reliable presence in Film Studies. Various writers have returned to the idea after many years, even if in a revisionist spirit (see Altman, 1999; Neale, 1980; 2000). The meanings and processes associated with genre have thus been the objects of fairly constant debate in film theory: ‘Genre is a French word meaning “type” or “kind”’, observes Stephen Neale; ‘it has occupied an important place in the study of the cinema for over thirty years (2000: 9).

Although other master-narratives are certainly possible – Sarah Berry-Flint (2004) offers a...