The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on Labeling Films, Television Shows and Media

Histories of science fiction often dicuss Fritz Lang's Metropolis as a classic work within the genre—yet the term "science fiction" had not been invented at the time of the film's release. If the genre did not have a name, did it exist? Does retroactive assignment to a genre change our understanding of a film? Do films shift in meaning and status as the name of a genre changes meaning over time?

These provocative questions are at the heart of this book, whose thirteen essays examine the var...