Intertextuality in Buffy The Vampire Slayer
A vivid and 'realistic' subjective experience of TV dramatic fiction is almost axiomatic of viewer enjoyment. To feel a personal engagement with the depicted events, to experience a sense of the fictional space as subjectively real and to become drawn into that space are arguably defining features of enjoyable television viewing, as they are of film and of literature. In this paper, I will argue that certain forms of intertextuality play a key role in producing this experience. In cult TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), these forms of intertextuality are used in abundance, and BtVS is therefore an excellent vehicle for exploring their psychological impact.
Krzywinska (2002) notes that BtVS demands a sophisticated level of engagement by viewers, and that this is encouraged by a number of strategies, including intertextual references. She notes that the show makes many references, for example to shows such as Xena and the novels of Anne Rice, and that these are 'Part of a common cultural vocabulary that connects characters to a broader "real" world culture. Such references lend the series a greater sense of meaningfulness, and textual richness, further encouraging discussion between viewers and helping to interlace the Buffyverse with everyday life' (p 190). Other references to the 'real' world (for example the fact that Giles is said to have brought many of his books from the British Library, and the frequent use of the Internet):
provide an important way of linking the diegetic world to other texts, to history, and to viewers' cultural knowledge This is important to the series' project of making connections with viewers' lives: the aim of which is to build a cultural vocabulary gleaned from the "real" world that is common to both viewers and characters' (pp 192 3).
For Krzywinska, such devices make the audience attentive and make the viewing experience richer and more rewarding. However, the argument presented here will be that such intertextuality has further psychological effects that serve to draw the viewer into the fantasy world of BtVS and to intensify the feeling of involvement. So that the rewards for the viewer go beyond merely 'catching the references'.
At this point, it seems necessary to enter into a brief discussion of what I am assuming by the term 'the viewer'. What follows is fundamentally a textual analysis of the positions that BtVS makes available or offers us, and invites us to take up (however, as will become clear, I am in no way suggesting that these subject positions are identificatory in the usual sense.
Relations between sympathy-empathy expressiveness and fiction have become a significant issue in the debate on the emotional responses to the film fiction. Due to their complexity many scholars found it useful to diagram them. With his essay, “Empathy and (Film) Fiction”, Alex Neill tries to develop new theory for analyzing the fiction and, especially, the emotional responses from the audience on it. The project of this essay is represented with an aim to show the audience the significant value of the emotional responses to the film fiction. From my point of view in the thesis of his project he asks a simple question: “Why does the (film) fiction evoke any emotions in the audience?”, further building the project in a very plain and clever way. Tracing the origins of this issue, he distinguishes between two types of emotional responses, sympathy and empathy, as separate concepts in order to understand the influence of both types of emotional responses to fiction. However, relying mostly on this unsupported discrepancy between two concepts and the influence of the “identification” concept, Neill finds himself unable to trace sympathy as a valuable response to fiction. This difficulty makes Neill argue throughout the better part of the text that empathy is the key emotional factor in the reaction to (film) fiction and that it is a more valuable type of emotional response for the audience.
Owens and Sawhill use pathos to evoke the feelings of their readers. This method establishes
The years between 1933-1945 was a horrifying time period. We learn about the Holocaust to know and learn about how bad the past was and what people had to go through. People study the Holocaust to be educate and undertsand the past. The most important reason why we study the Holocaust is so that nothing as bad as the Holocaust was, happens again. According to Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
We learn about the Holocaust because we don't want another mass genocide like the Holocaust to happen again. We can stop it earlier on so that millionsof people who don't deserve to die are killed. We can also take care of people who try to do anything like the Holocaust. We also learn about the Holocaust because it's a very important part of history. We learn about how many people lost their lives due to one person who didn't like that certain race.
All these subjects come together to show why we learn about the Holocaust. We simply learn about it because we don't want it all to happen again. The horrible things that have happened will happen again if peace and tolerance are not taught. It's good to learn that humans are capable for such evil things so it wont happen again. If we didn't study it, people wouldn't know or remember the past and might repeat it. We learn from mistakes, which is why we learn about the Holocaust. We want to minimize the mistakes that happened once and for all.
Shakespeare’s plays, among other classic works of literature, tend to be forged with the tension of human emotion. The archetypical parallel of love and hatred polarizes characters and emphasizes the stark details of the plot. More specifically, the compelling force of revenge is behind most of the motives of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The play opens with the return of Hamlet’s father, a surprising encounter, which ended in his son learning that his father’s death was the result of foul play. By emphasizing this scene as the beginning of the story to be told, Shakespeare clearly implies that the plot itself will be based around the theme of revenge. Through three different instances of behavior fueled entirely by vengeance, Shakespeare creates an image in the reader’s mind, which foreshadows the future of the story and provides insight into the plot line. Even so, despite the theme of revenge being the overarching concern of the plot, the parallels drawn between characters truly strengthen the thematic depth of the piece overall, making the play easily one of Shakespeare’s most infamous and historically valuable works.
The Holocaust was a killing strategy of homosexuals, gypsies, Jews, and the handicapped. The Holocaust occurred during World War II. It means “death by fire” in Greek. A list of some of the European countries with concentration camps and the number of camps in them that are recorded are: Austria: 48, Czechoslovakia: 9, France: 130, Belzec: 1, Grozen-Rosen: 73, Midanah: 3, Stuttof: 40, Belgium: 1, Estonia: 1, Poland: 6 Extermination Camps, Germany: Well over one hundred. The Holocaust was originally used for finding new ways of killing animals for food. It caused some horrible starvations of many, many people in Europe. It also caused sights of skinny people that look dead. The barracks the “prisoners of war” were sent to were at the min...
Parkinson’s Disease (PD), "the shaking palsy" first described by James Parkinson in 1817, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which affects in upwards of 1.5 million Americans. The disease begins to occur around age 40 and has incidence with patient age. One survey found that PD may affect 1% of the population over 60. Incidence seems to be more prominent in men, and tends to progress to incapacity and death over one or two decades.
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized mainly by physical and psychological disabilities. This disorder was named after James Parkinson, an English physician who first described it as shaking palsy in 1817 (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). Jean- Martin Charcot, who was a French neurologist, then progressed and further refined the description of the disease and identified other clinical features of PD (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). PD involves the loss of cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the brain stem called the substansia nigra, which results in several signs and symptoms (Byrd, Marks, and Starr, 2000). It is manifested clinically by tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, hypokinesia, and postural instability. PD is a common disorder, affecting at least 1% of people by age 70 with it being 1.5 times more common in men than in women (Hauser, et al. 2010). The incidence has been estimated to be 4.5-21 cases per 100,000 population per year, with most studies estimating a prevalence of approximately 120 per 100,00 (Hauser, et al. 2010).
Parkinson’s Disease (PD), known for its degenerative abilities and debilitating affects, is an illness that affects approximately 1 million Americans. The cause of this disease has not been pinpointed, although strides have been made towards a cure. As our elderly population increases, so does our overwhelming need to find a suitable cure that may one day eliminate this disease.
Television has come a long way since it was first introduced. Originally, it was thought that the masses that watch television enjoyed the more simple shows that would tell you exactly what was going on from start to finish. In Steven Johnson’s article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”, Johnson argues that this is actually not the case. In fact, Johnson argues that much more people enjoy shows that involve multi threading, or multiple plots that are all connected.
In conclusion, Hamlet is undeniably the crown of indulgence into contemporary behaviors and insight into human complexities. Shakespeare’s exquisite use of theme, entertainment and characterization not only develops the intricate plot and body of the play, but also invites the audience into a realm of knowledge and understanding. Ultimately, the pursuit of knowledge is the greatest asset known to humankind. Its infinite possibilities excite the imagination and for that reason, one should value contemporary literary works. But it is important to respect and study the foundation of these pieces, for they base their content off of the classics.
Up until recently television has been the most prominent medium of entertainment and information in our lives. Nothing could beat Saturday morning cartoons, the six o'clock news and zoning out from the world by the distractions of prime time sitcoms. It is all of these things and more that formed television into what was thought to be the ultimate entertainment medium, that is, up until now. Television in the twenty-first century is not the television our parents watched or in fact what we watched as children. Today’s generation are no longer satisfied with the traditional television experience. Today’s audience no longer has to follow the network’s predetermined schedule nor is television the one dimensional experience it used to be. Viewers no longer need to schedule a fixed time in order to gather information or watch their favourite show (Smith 5). They can record it with the push of the DVR (Digital Video Recording) button or watch it on a device and obtain background information via the Internet. In addition, viewers now have the opportunity to interact with, share, and produce their own material from their favourite show (5). In order to not lose the authenticity of television, media theorists have created transmedia. This new twist on television gives the user more control and more involvement than ever before. The concept has been termed as transmedia storytelling. The online journal Infoline defines transmedia storytelling in its January 2014 issue as “social, mobile, accessible and re-playable.” Originally coined in the 1990’s it was not until 2003 when Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications at the University of Southern California, wrote his article “Transmedia Storytelling” that the term began being ...
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.