It looks like academia is going to study the Slayer. A three-day academic conference has been at Henderson State University in Little Rock, Arkansas to study the works of Joss Whedon, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The conference is to focus more on the philosophical themes of the series. Several books have been published on this particular subject matter (one of which sits on my own bookshelves).
"It has staying power," said Kevin Durand, an associate professor of philosophy at the school. "It's like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We're not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. 'Buffy,' I think, does that. 'Buffy' never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started."
My only question is: where were the Buffy philosophy classes when I went to college? Oh yeah, Buffy wasn't around yet.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-06-2008 @ 2:03PM
nattyff said...
that is soooo cool!!!
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6-06-2008 @ 2:46PM
0megapart!cle said...
But I'm sure they had Charlie Chaplin philosophy classes!
I kid! You could be younger than me. Probably not though, old man! :)
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6-06-2008 @ 2:56PM
GL said...
I love me some Buffy, but come on.
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6-06-2008 @ 6:17PM
mj said...
All hail the Buffster. I'd attend. She still rules.
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6-06-2008 @ 11:55PM
Haunt said...
I'm at the conference right now. This is my third time, and it's fantastic.
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6-07-2008 @ 2:09AM
Karen said...
Brad, this may be new to you, but it's hardly news. Academia has been studying Buffy for years. "Slayage: the on-line international journal of Buffy studies," for example, has been around since 2001. A search of the Modern Language Association Bibliography online turns up 93 hits for essays on Buffy, the earliest dating back to 1999, with titles such as "To Be a Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Race and ('Other') Socially Marginalizing Positions on Horror TV" and "Deconstructing Buffy: Buffy the Vampire's Contribution to the Discourse on Gender Construction" -- many of which are collected in a book called "Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
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6-07-2008 @ 7:07AM
Argus said...
Studying season 7: Whedon decides that having a good plot would overshadow his feminist message. Following philisophical revelations are about as subtle and well thought out as a sledge hammer. I cry as I remember seasons 1-3.
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