Buffy studies (or Buffyology) is the study of Joss Whedon's popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, its spin-off program Angel. It explores issues related to gender and other philosophical issues as expressed through the content of these shows in the fictional Buffyverse.
Neda Ulaby of NPR describes Buffy as having a "special following among academics, some of whom have staked a claim in what they call 'Buffy Studies'". Though not widely recognized as a distinct discipline, the term "Buffy studies" is commonly used amongst the academic Buffy-related writings.
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Development as academic field
The debut of Buffy (1997-2003) eventually led to the publication of a number of books and hundreds of articles examining the themes of the show from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives including sociology, psychology, philosophy, theology and women's studies. Since January 2001 Slayage: The Online Journal of Buffy Studies has published essays on the topic quarterly, and it continues to do so. Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was published in 2002, and since then many more Buffy books have been published by academic book publishers. There have also been a number of international conferences on the topic. "College courses across the globe are devoted to the show, and secondary schools in Australia and New Zealand also provide Buffy classes." The topic can even be undertaken as part of a Master's degree in Cult Film & TV at Brunel University, London. Increasingly Angel is being analyzed alongside its predecessor, e.g. in the 2005 publication, Reading Angel.
The creator of Buffy, Joss Whedon, has responded to the scholarly reaction to his series: "I think it's great that the academic community has taken an interest in the show. I think it's always important for academics to study popular culture, even if the thing they are studying is idiotic. If it's successful or made a dent in culture, then it is worthy of study to find out why. Buffy, on the other hand is, I hope, not idiotic. We think very carefully about what we're trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we're writing it... it really is, apart from being a pop-culture phenomenon, something that is deeply layered textually episode by episode."
The Third International Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses was held June 5-8, 2008 at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
The response to this scholarly attention has had its critics. Jes Battis who authored Blood Relations in Buffy and Angel admits that study of the Buffyverse "invokes an uneasy combination of enthusiasm and ire", and meets "a certain amount of disdain from within the halls of the academy".
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Examples of explored themes
Gender studies
- Lorna Jowett, 2005: Sex and The Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan.
Pop culture studies
- Dee Amy-Chinn and Milly Williamson, 2005: The Vampire Spike in text and fandom: Unsettling oppositions in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Media studies
- Rhonda Wilcox, 2005: Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Wilcox, Rhonda & Lavery, David, 2002. "Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake for Buffy The Vampire Slayer."
Family studies
- Burr, Vivien., and Jarvis, C. Sept. 2007. "Imagining the Family Representations of Alternative Lifestyles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Aesthetics
- Kociemba, David, 2006: "Actually, it explains a lot": Reading the Opening Title Sequences in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Additional works
The full title "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is shortened to BtVS in the following table.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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