In ‘The Demon Section of the Card Catalogue’: Buffy Studies and Television Studies

Abstract

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Mutant Enemy Inc./20th Century Fox Television, 1997–2003), created by Joss Whedon and a remarkable crew and cast, has inspired vigorous critical discussion from the start, and now boasts one of the biggest shelves in the scholarly television library. In fact, one might say the series is helping to fight the forces that sometimes demonise television studies. It would hardly be possible to explain all the causes for the intellectual interest Buffy provokes. But clearly, it is an important series at an important moment in television studies. The earliest writings about Buffy generally recognised as scholarly came in the summer of 1999: Written by Michael Adams, A. Susan Owen, and me, these articles give some inkling of the variety of disciplinary angles from which the series can be viewed. Adams’ two-part essay ‘Slayer Slang’ appeared in Verbatim. His work analysed the series’ famously creative use of language. Owen’s ‘Vampires, Postmodernity, and Postfeminism: Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, discussed the series from a sociological perspective, particularly regarding its contested claim to feminism. My essay ‘“There Will Never Be a ‘Very Special’ Buffy”: Buffy and the Monsters of Teen Life,’ in the same issue of JPFT, discussed both language use and yet another of the series’ important elements, its use of symbolism in purposeful literary style. From the start, then, Buffy’s language, feminism and purposeful symbolism (semiotic and narratological) have engaged critics. And not long after, GraceAnne DeCandido foregrounded the series’ use of research and intellect as heroic: the library, as David Lavery says, is the primal setting in Buffy. No wonder more scholars joined in the discussion. 2000–2001 brought many studies of Buffy and social issues. In 2000, Kent A. Ono questioned the series’ representation of race; in a television text often considered In ‘The Demon Section of the Card Catalogue’: Buffy Studies and Television Studies