GENRE AND FORMULA Contemporary, Popular, and

Emergent Literature
 THE CONCEPT •Difference between genre and formula
•Importance of this difference in popular literature
OF GENRE AND
FORMULA
* The analysis of Popular literature is somewhat different from that of fine arts (like
paintings, sculptures, poetry, etc.)
* In popular culture, we are dealing with a product that is in some sense collective
(Mukerji & Schudson, 1986).
Cultural

Social
SIMILARITIES

Psychological

THEMES: tried and true methods of dealing with popular culture.

Analysis of The concept
cultural of medium
themes

The idea of The concept

myth/genre of formula
 NORTHROP
FRYE’S GENRE
AND MYTH
 * totality of literary works constitute a “self-
ANATOMY OF contained literary universe”

CRITICISM * four radical mythoi (i.e. plot forms, or organizing

structural principles)

(1957)
 * Comedy is aligned with spring because the
genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of
the hero, revival and resurrection.
Also, spring symbolizes the defeat of winter and
darkness.
• Romance and summer are paired together
because summer is the culmination of life in the
seasonal calendar, and the romance genre
culminates with some sort of triumph, usually a
marriage.
• Autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal
calendar, which parallels the tragedy genre
because it is, (above all), known for the “fall” or
demise of the protagonist.
• Satire is compared to winter on the grounds
that satire is a “dark” genre. Satire is a
disillusioned and mocking form of the three other
genres. It is noted for its darkness, dissolution,
the return of chaos, and the defeat of the heroic
figure.

(Barad, 2014).
 * Frye: genre and myth are universal patterns of
action which manifests itself in all human cultures
[western cultures]

GENRE VS * Therefore, genre can be defined as a structural

pattern which embodies a universal pattern or myth
FORMULA * Formula, on the other hand, is a cultural pattern; it
represents the way in which a culture has absorbed
or integrated for itself the myth.
 ROMANCE AS GENRE VS ROMANCE AS FORMULA

Differences in setting, characters, and action:

FRYE: romance genre culminates with some sort

of triumph, usually a marriage.
(UNIVERSAL ARCHETYPE)
Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a
central love story and an emotionally satisfying and
optimistic ending (Romance Writers of America)
* differences are cultural and they reflect the particular concerns and needs of the
time of its production and the group which created them.

Re(inventing) the Filipino Romance: conventions and innovations in the novels of Martha Cecilia and
Elise Estrella (Chiongson, J., 2017)

WESTERN ROMANCE FORMULA PHILIPPINE ROMANCE FORMULA

• The formula has changed over the years.
• The most recent by An Goris (2012)
• Hero and Heroine meet
• Mutual Attraction
• Internal and external conflict
• Crisis
• The relationship seems doomed
• HEA
• The formula has changed over the years
• Encanto (1996)
• Low born protagonist
• Upper class adversaries or enemies
• Triumph of the protagonist
• HEA

Do the romance fiction of 2020 still follow this formula?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
* formula is expectation setting
* formula articulated by one culture can be taken over another
* formula is culture-based; therefore, while comparisons are unavoidable, it would not
present a complete analysis
 CULTURAL NATURE OF FORMULA (CAWELTI, 1972)
FIRST POINT
GENRE FORMULA
BASIC AND UNIVERSAL LIMITED AND SPECIFIC

The greater the specificity of plot, character, and setting reflects a more limited framework of interests,
values, and tensions that relate to culture rather than to the generic nature of human beings.

SECOND POINT
FORMULA
REPRESENT SYNTHESIS OF SEVERAL IMPORTANT CULTURAL FUNCTIONS, WHICH IN MODERN CULTURES
HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER BY POPULAR FORMS OF ART

Members of a culture can understand and participate in formula as a part of their sense of solidarity and
for personal enjoyment and recreation.
IS FORMULA BAD FOR
LITERATURE?