The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality

Front Cover
Emily Dial-Driver,, Sally Emmons-Featherston, Jim Ford
McFarland, Jan 10, 2014 - Performing Arts - 248 pages

Seemingly the most fantastical of television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer proves on close examination to be firmly rooted in real-world concerns. In this collection of critical essays, 15 authors from several disciplines, including literature, the visual arts, theatre, philosophy, and political science, study ways in which Buffy illuminates viewers' real-life experiences.

Topics include the series' complicated portrayals of the relationship between soul, morality, and identity; whether Buffy can truly be described as a feminist icon; stereotypes of Native Americans in the episode "Pangs"; the role of signs in the interaction between Buffy's aesthetics and audience; and the problem of power and underhanded politics in the Buffy universe.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Preface
1
Introduction
5
Whats It All About Buffy? Victor Frankl and Buffy
9
Got Myself a Soul? The Puzzling Treatment of the Soul in Buffy
24
Buffys Music as Representation of Emerging Adulthood
38
Is That Stereotype Dead? Working with and Against Western Stereotypes in Buffy
55
Politics and Power in Buffy
67
Moral Choices Sparked by Connections
83
Developing Xander
131
Allusions of Many Kinds
142
Buffy as Morality Play for the Twentyfirst Centurys Therapeutic Ethos
158
Witchcraft in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and in Contemporary African Culture
173
Exploring Buffy Iconography
185
Buffy and the Pursuit of Happiness
201
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes
211
Works Cited
213

Is It Art? The Artful Hush of St Francis and the Gentlemen Blue Meanies
96
Brechtian Techniques in Buffy
107
Effective Lyrics in Buffy Episodes
120
About the Contributors
225
Index
229
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality
Sally Emmons-Featherston,Jim Ford
No preview available - 2008

Common terms and phrases

action adolescence adults Africa allusions Angel Anya audience becomes Beer Bad Blue Meanies Brecht Buffy episodes Buffy the Vampire Buffy’s Buffy’s music Buffyverse characters Chumash Conversations with Dead Cordelia culture dark Dawn death demon Doublemeat Palace Drusilla emotional episode evil example Faith feel fight Fool for Love Frankl friends Giles Giles’s girl happiness Hellmouth high school human Indian Joss Whedon kill live magic meaning morality play narrative one’s person philosophy reality references relationship reveals Riley Rogers State University role says scene Scooby Gang Season Five Season Four Season Seven Season Six Season Three Season Two’s sexual Shakespeare shot show’s signs sings Six’s song soul spell Spike stereotypes Stevenson story Sunnydale Tara Tara’s Teacher’s Pet television tells there’s thing Vampire Slayer Veruca viewer What’s Willow witchcraft witches women writers Xander Yoko Factor

About the author (2014)

Emily Dial-Driver is a professor of English at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma, and fiction editor of RSU’s Cooweescoowee: A Journal of Arts and Letters. Sally Emmons-Featherston is an associate professor of English at Rogers State University and the managing editor of Cooweescoowee. Jim Ford teaches humanities, philosophy, and religion at Rogers State University and is director of the honors program. His articles have been published in the Journal of Religion, the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, and Honors in Practice. Carolyn Anne Taylor is an associate professor of political science at Rogers State University and previously served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She lives in Claremore, Oklahoma.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality
EditorsEmily Dial-Driver,, Sally Emmons-Featherston, Jim Ford
Editionillustrated
PublisherMcFarland, 2014
ISBN078645167X, 9780786451678
Length248 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Performing Arts / Television / General
Social Science / Popular Culture
  
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