Kulchynska L. The genre mechanisms of meaning production in arthouse and mainstream cinema.

Genre mechanisms of meaning production and meaning transmission are investigated in the dissertation. The subject of analysis is the film genre categories as a discursive constructs. By way of comparison of Western and Soviet theory of genre, genre criticism strategies of interpretation, viewers practices of genre definition and genre strategies of Western and Soviet film industry the performative aspect of genre categories functioning is examined: the way they shape modes of perception and interpretation of films, organize viewing and cultural memory, as well as direct filmmaking practices. The problem of genre categories, therefore, considered not in terms of its "correctness", but in terms of its efficiency, which depends on how this or that genre concepts can gain a foothold in the culture and thus influence the audience or industrial practices.