Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy PDF Download

Author: James B. South
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812697472
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
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.

Author: J. Michael Richardson
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786455306
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This study examines the major works of contemporary American television and film screenwriter Joss Whedon. The authors argue that these works are part of an existentialist tradition that stretches back from the French atheistic existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, through the Danish Christian existentialist Soren Kierkegaard, to the Russian novelist and existentialist Fyodor Dostoevsky. Whedon and Dostoevsky, for example, seem preoccupied with the problem of evil and human freedom. Both argue that in each and every one of us "a demon lies hidden." Whedon personifies these demons and has them wandering about and causing havoc. Dostoevsky treats the subject only slightly more seriously. Chapters cover such topics as Russian existentialism and vampire slayage; moral choices; ethics; Faith and bad faith; constructing reality through existential choice; some limitations of science and technology; love and self-sacrifice; love, witchcraft, and vengeance; soul mates and moral responsibility; love and moral choice; forms of freedom; and Whedon as moral philosopher.

Author: Jana Riess
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780787969226
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
What Would Buffy Do? explores the fascinating spiritual, religious, and mythological ideas of television's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer--from apocalypse and sacrifice to self-reliance, redemption, and the need for humor when fighting our spiritual battles.

Author: Dean A. Kowalski
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081313997X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Every generation produces a counterculture icon. Joss Whedon, creator of the long-running television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is famed for his subversive wit, rich characters, and extraordinary plotlines. His renown has only grown with subsequent creations, including Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the innovative online series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Through premises as unusual as a supernatural detective agency run by a vampire and a Western set in outer space, Whedon weaves stories about characters forced to make commonplace moral decisions under the most bizarre of circumstances. The Philosophy of Joss Whedon examines Whedon's plots and characterizations to reveal their philosophical takes on the limits of personal freedom, sexual morality, radical evil, and Daoism.

Author: Evan Ross Katz
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0306826704
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Explore the history and cultural impact of a groundbreaking television show adored by old and new fans alike: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Over the course of its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer cultivated a loyal fandom and featured a strong, complex female lead, at a time when such a character was a rarity. Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later. Katz—with the help of the show’s cast, creators, and crew—reveals that although Buffy contributed to important conversations about gender, sexuality, and feminism, it was not free of internal strife, controversy, and shortcomings. Men—both on screen and off—would taint the show’s reputation as a feminist masterpiece, and changing networks, amongst other factors, would drastically alter the show’s tone. Katz addresses these issues and more, including interviews with stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Nicholas Brendon, Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, Bianca Lawson, Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, K. Todd Freeman, Sharon Ferguson; and writers Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson, and Drew Z. Greenberg; as well as conversations with Buffy fanatics and friends of the cast including Stacey Abrams, Cynthia Erivo, Lee Pace, Claire Saffitz, Tavi Gevinson, and Selma Blair. Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born engages with the very notion of fandom, and the ways a show like Buffy can influence not only how we see the world but how we exist within it.

Author: Mark Field
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781522057772
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
Collected essays covering each episode of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Author: Kevin K. Durand
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786453745
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
This book presents serious academic scholarship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It differs from other works because it uses Buffy as a primary text and not as a secondary instrument to explore other concepts. In doing so, it demonstrates that popular culture studies should be approached with the same serious attention that is paid to classic philosophy and other long-established fields. Essays assemble the Buffy canon and explore how Buffy treats Shakespeare, comics, power, sisterhood, apocalyptic revisionism, folklore, feminism, redemption, patriarchy, identity and education. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Author: Anonym
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783640763405
Category :
Languages : de
Pages : 24

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Book Description
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

Author: Glenn Yeffeth
Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.
ISBN: 193525149X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This collection of irreverent and surprising essays about the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer includes pieces by leading science fiction and fantasy authors. Contributors include bestselling legend David Brin, critically acclaimed novelist Scott Westerfeld, cult-favorite vampire author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and award-winner Sarah Zettel. The show and its cast are the topics of such critical pieces as Lawrence Watt-Evans's "Matchmaking in Hellmouth" and Sherrilyn Kenyon's "The Search for Spike's Balls." An informed introduction for those not well acquainted with the show, and a source of further research for Buffy buffs, this book raises interesting questions concerning a much-loved program and future cult classic.

Author: Emily Dial-Driver,
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078645167X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
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.