Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Erin Giannini the Chapter Page can be found here.
This chapter of the Handbook gave an overview and introduction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, concentrating on the series, rather than the initial movie and, of course, touching into spin-off series Angel. This is, of course, quite a daunting undertaking as, recognised by the author, the series has spawned a great deal of academic work, in its own right. The approximately 8-9000 word count for Handbook chapters cannot begin to do anything other than scratch the surface but what we do get is an excellent introduction to some of the themes the series contains.
The author, amongst other things, touches on gender and sex themes in the series as well as religion and ethics – noting a particularly Kantian approach to the latter. They also touch on how the Buffy universe continued in comic form after cancellation. There is an interesting touch into toxicity and the fact that Buffy creator Josh Whedon has, in and off himself, shifted from the person who brought a feminist oriented series to air, to being allegedly toxic himself due to his reported on-set activity. The fact that the Whedon Studies Association opted to change the organisations name is telling, as the shadow of the allegations fall long across the series as a subject and so disassociating themselves allows for study of a watershed series without that stigma.
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