| Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Contributor(s): Battis, Jes (Author) |
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ISBN: 078642172X ISBN-13: 9780786421725 Publisher: McFarland & Company OUR PRICE: $29.65 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2005 Annotation: The television series Buffy and Angel revolve around radical conceptions of family. Indeed, their coherence depends on the establishment of nontraditional families that admit vampires, demons, witches, werewolves, and other bizarre characters without censuring them for their peculiarities. This work argues that what makes these characters enduring and engaging is their critical family connections?for their most involved struggles occur not within the graveyard, but around the dinner table, just as the most challenging adversarial forces that they must face are not demons or vampires but the stuff of everyday life. What does ?family? encompass within these two series? How does it relate to concepts of gender, sexuality, power and the supernatural as they emerge from the shows? complex narratives? This book explores such questions. It also examines the ?chosen family? (an idea marketed specifically by successful programs such as Friends and Sex in the City within the past ten years), juxtaposing it against various images of the fractured biological family displayed in both Buffy and Angel. Through eight chapters addressing various family-related aspects within both shows, this work plots the trajectory of this unstable notion of family, even as it is transformed, remediated, and rendered unrecognizable from a ?family values? perspective by the unique and supernatural relationships that proliferate in Buffy and Angel. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Performing Arts | Television - General - Social Science | Popular Culture |
| Dewey: 791.457 |
| LCCN: 2005012763 |
| Physical Information: 0.54" H x 6.12" W x 9.04" (0.62 lbs) 200 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The television series Buffy and Angel revolve around radical conceptions of family. Indeed, their coherence depends on the establishment of nontraditional families that admit vampires, demons, witches, werewolves, and other bizarre characters without censuring them for their peculiarities. This work argues that what makes these characters enduring and engaging is their critical family connections--for their most involved struggles occur not within the graveyard, but around the dinner table, just as the most challenging adversarial forces that they must face are not demons or vampires but the stuff of everyday life. What does family encompass within these two series? How does it relate to concepts of gender, sexuality, power and the supernatural as they emerge from the shows' complex narratives? This book explores such questions. It also examines the chosen family (an idea marketed specifically by successful programs such as Friends and Sex in the City within the past ten years), juxtaposing it against various images of the fractured biological family displayed in both Buffy and Angel. Through eight chapters addressing various family-related aspects within both shows, this work plots the trajectory of this unstable notion of family, even as it is transformed, remediated, and rendered unrecognizable from a family values perspective by the unique and supernatural relationships that proliferate in Buffy and Angel. |