SF-TH Inc On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History Author(s): John Rieder Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2 (July 2010), pp. 191-209 Published by: SF-TH Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25746406 . Accessed: 30/01/2014 13:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. SF-TH Inc is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Science Fiction Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 131.111.184.22 on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:21:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ON DEFINING SF, OR NOT 191 John Rieder On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History In his groundbreaking 1984 essay, "A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre," Rick Altman could accurately state that "genre theory has up to now aimed almost exclusively at theelaboration of a synchroniemodel approximating the syntactic operation of a specific genre" (12). Only a few years later, in 1991, Ralph Cohen announced that therehad been a paradigm shift in genre theory, in the course of which its dominant project had changed from identifying and classifying fixed, ahistorical entities to studying genres as historical processes (85-87).