Philosophical Potential In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: The pop cultural TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS, 1997-2003), produced and directed by Joss Whedon, definitely exceeds the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1992. Especially "Once More, with Feeling," a musical episode that very much differs from the rest of the series, is an extraordinary treasure in the history of television. In this, Joss Whedon self-ironically summits the developments from previous episodes and makes it a climax of the series. Dawn's question: "Come on, songs, dancing around... what's gonna be wrong with that?" in the beginning of the musical episode as well as the knowledge that there is no day in Buffyverse that leads to hugs and puppies, has the viewer automatically suppose that this episode offers a meaning beyond pure entertainment. Sweet, the summoned dancing demon, forces the inhabitants of Sunnydale to sing their most intimate secrets to one another, and this - how else could it be - leads to chaos, desperation, and pain. In this critical approach, an analysis of the musical episode's different layers of reality and fantasy will be given in order to prove that the highest fantastical level still deals with the most realistic issues of life. Only by recognizing the most fantastical layers as encrypted reality, it is understandable that in BtVS the Scooby Gang does not only kick ass but that the series, and especially this episode, carries high philosophical potential as well. In order to understand the different layers of reality and fantasy, it is necessary to make clear what this exactly means in the given context. As reality, we do not understand the perceptive faculty of the existing nature by the individual but by the public at large. In this approach, the audience's shared universal knowledge and everything which is considered as real will be defined as reality. In

Director, producer and screenwriter Joss Whedon is a creative force in film, television, comic books and a host of other media. This book provides an authoritative survey of all of Whedon's work, ranging from his earliest scriptwriting on Roseanne, through his many movie and TV undertakings--Toy Story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Horrible, The Cabin in the Woods, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.--to his forays into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The book covers both the original texts of the Whedonverse and the many secondary works focusing on Whedon's projects, including about 2000 books, essays, articles, documentaries and dissertations.

This comprehensive bibliography covers writings about vampires and related creatures from the 19th century to the present. More than 6,000 entries document the vampire's penetration of Western culture, from scholarly discourse, to popular culture, politics and cook books. Sections by topic list works covering various aspects, including general sources, folklore and history, vampires in literature, music and art, metaphorical vampires and the contemporary vampire community. Vampires from film and television--from Bela Lugosi's Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood and the Twilight Saga--are well represented.

Twenty-three essays by young professional philosophers examine crucial ethical and metaphysical aspects of the Buffyverse (the world of Buffy). Though the show already attracted much scholarly attention, this is the first book to fully disinter the intellectual issues. Designed by Whedon as a multilevel story with most of its meanings deeply buried in heaps of heavy irony, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has replaced The X-Files as the show that explains to Americans the nature of the powerful forces of evil continually threatening to surge into our world of everyday decency and overwhelm it. In the tradition of the classic horror films Buffy the Vampire Slayer addresses ethical issues that have long fascinated audiences. This book draws out the ethical and metaphysical lessons from a pop-culture phenomenon.

Don't turn around - there's probably one behind you right now. Vampires and zombies are just everywhere. Bram Stoker had no idea what he was starting when he published his vampire novel Dracula in 1897, incidentally digging up and re-animating the word ''undead. Whether it's Twilight, Let the Right One In, True Blood, or the comic book series Thirty Days of Night, vampire stories seem to experience an eternal cycle of death and resurrection, growing more potent, if not more rosy-cheeked, with each successive manifestation. While vampires are suave, sexy, sophisticated, stay up all night, generally have good hair, and often deliver witty one-liners, zombies are just the opposite. Zombies have poor complexions, missing body parts, few social graces, and are conversationally challenged. Yet public fascination with zombies keeps proliferating, along with the popularity of vampires. There are more zombie books, zombie movies, and zombie games than ever before. About the only things vampires and zombies share is that they want to bite us and we are at risk of becoming like them. However, they both confront us with moral and metaphysical issues of life and death. In Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy, an expanded edition of The Undead and Philosophy, twenty-two of our leading thinkers teach us the lessons we can absorb from the various forms of Undeath. ''this is a book worth buying just for the final chapter, which gives us the sensational and hitherto suppressed correspondence of tienne Lavec and Paulie Dori Williams. At long last we have a vital perspective that has been sadly lacking; authentic vampire reactions to the way vampires are depicted in popular culture.

"A collection of philosophical essays about the undead: beings such as vampires and zombies who are physically or mentally dead yet not at rest. Topics addressed include the metaphysics and ethics of undeath"--Provided by publisher.

This book explores how the next generation of teen and young adult heroines in popular culture are creating a new feminist ideal for the 21st century. Representations of a teenage girl who is unique or special occur again and again in coming-of-age stories. It's an irresistible concept: the heroine who seems just like every other, but under the surface, she has the potential to change the world. This book examines the cultural significance of teen and young adult female characters—the New Heroines—in popular culture. The book addresses a wide range of examples primarily from the past two decades, with several chapters focusing on a specific heroic figure in popular culture. In addition, the author offers a comparative analysis between the "New Woman" figure from the late 19th and early 20th century and the New Heroine in the 21st century. Readers will understand how representations of teenage girls in fiction and nonfiction are positioned as heroic because of their ability to find out about themselves by connecting with other people, their environment, and technology.

In this book, Dean Kowalski argues that filmmakers can “do” philosophy when creating a fictional narrative film, and utilizes a careful and extensive analysis of Joss Whedon’s fictive creations—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and The Cabin in the Woods (among others)—to establish this thesis. This book appeals to many different readers. For the many admirers of Whedon’s fictive creations, it offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of his corpus. It reprises many examples and dialogue passages from the far corners of the so-called “Whedonverse.” You’ll get a chance to re-experience your favorite dramatic moments, and think about them in novel ways. For popular culture scholars, it offers illustrations of various philosophical theories, explains how those theories pertain to relevant data points in Whedon’s oeuvre, and assesses whether, or to what extent, they have real-world application. For philosophers of film, it explicates crucial issues germane to the film-as-philosophy debate, but also expands them to television—all in the attempt to demonstrate why it is that Whedon ought to be included among those rare filmmakers who engage the philosophical process via their artistry.