Mimetic Magic and Anti-Sacrificial Slayage: A Girardian Reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In the following pages, we defend what might strike some as a surprising thesis, namely, that the view of culture and human relations embedded in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1997 to 2003, coincides with key elements of the theory of mimetic desire and human violenc...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Dunn, George A. 1957- (Author) ; McDonald, Brian (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2019
In: Mimetic theory and film
Year: 2019, Pages: 151-176
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Girard, René 1923-2015
B Mimesis
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:In the following pages, we defend what might strike some as a surprising thesis, namely, that the view of culture and human relations embedded in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1997 to 2003, coincides with key elements of the theory of mimetic desire and human violence elaborated by René Girard. We first show how one pivotal episode of the series, Season Two’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (2.16), dramatically and metaphorically illustrates key elements of Girard’s theory, after which we will examine the narrative arc of Season Five, showing how the transformation of rivalrous mimesis into positive mimesis and an ethical response to the other is dramatized in the relationship of Buffy Summers to her newly arrived little sister Dawn Summers....
ISBN:9781501334863
Contains:Enthalten in: Mimetic theory and film
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5040/9781501334863.0013