Slayage Conference of the Whedonverses 3 Where: Henderson State University, Arkadelphia When: June 5-8; a reception will be held June 5, with the actual conference starting at 9 a.m. June 6. Fee: $ 150 for the conference; an additional $ 30 for the June 6 banquet Information: Contact Kathryn Zawisza at (870 ) 403-1363; e-mail hsuphilosophy@gmail. com; or go to www. slayageonline. com Into every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.
— Buffy the Vampire Slayer Canon of the late television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer holds that when a human dies and becomes a vampire, he retains the memories and characteristics of the human he was, but loses his soul. His body is taken over and animated by a demon. The vampire’s not alive, not dead — he’s undead. Continuing in that vein of thought, could the show itself, departed from the airwaves since its 2003 finale, now be considered “undead” ? After all, the horror-fantasy-comedy-drama series retains all its “characteristics” in syndication and DVD sales (forms of “memory,” hmm ?), and is animated by the continued interest of fans, scholars and the recipients of residuals.
Don’t be mistaken. We’re not likening those who now “animate” the show to demons, but merely putting forth a question, inviting a bite of intellectual mindplay — mindplay such as that to occur June 5-8 at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia during “Slayage Conference of the Whedonverses 3,” a gathering of scholars devoted to the burgeoning field of “Buffy studies.” Buffy studies, a term likely to elicit a guffaw (or derisive snort ) from the uninitiated, refers to scholarly examination in an array of disciplines — literature, music, pop culture and television, mathematics, philosophy, sociology and beyond — of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as the other works of creator Joss Whedon (see accompanying story on 6 E ). The term “Whedonverses” in the Slayage conference title refers to all of Whedon’s fictional universes. (It’s common to consider fictional settings as “’verses.” For example, the world imagined by J. R. R. Tolkien is the “Tolkienverse.” )
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the heroine is a petite blond teenage girl, the one girl in all the world chosen to fight vampires, demons and the powers of darkness. (Note: Human evildoers are not on her list; she leaves those to the justice system. ) The slayer is also a high school student in the small California town of Sunnydale, where the school sits atop a “hellmouth,” or gateway between dimensions, making the perception of high school as hell a literal one.
While the premise may sound cheesy to those who never tuned in, Buffy is more than a story about a girl with super strength, a stake and a killer kick who saves the world on a regular basis. Buffy is about sacrifice, courage, duty, self-doubt, friendship, collaboration, isolation, the eternal conflict between good and evil, morality, growing up, humanity, inhumanity and death. All this and witty dialogue.
UNDEAD DISCUSSION The series aired from 1997 to 2003, inspiring “vigorous critical discussion from the start, and now boasts one of the biggest shelves in the scholarly television library,” said Rhonda Wilcox in a 2006 article, “The Demon Section of the Card Catalog: Buffy Studies and Television Studies,” which examined the wealth of Buffy scholarship existing up to that point.
As a pop production worthy of academic study, Buffy is not alone. Buffy studies shares library space with scholarly analyses of M * A * S * H, Twin Peaks, Roswell, The Sopranos, Deadwood and Star Trek, among others. They’re all part of the growing academic discipline devoted to popular culture — a discipline growing despite scoffers who argue that pop culture lacks depth and sustainability as art.
Wilcox points out that Charles Dickens’ stories, long considered classics and staples of literary studies, were among the popular fiction of the 19 th century and not immediately read as “art.” And, like a TV series, she notes, Dickens’ stories were presented to the public in serial form.
Wilcox co-edits Slayage, the Online International Journal of Buffy Studies (www. slayageon line. com ), where her article appeared. Slayage is “the” instead of “an” online journal because it’s devoted entirely to scholarly musings and news about same. On the journal’s Web site, you’ll find none of the usual trappings of fandom — there is no fan-fic (Buffy-based fiction written by fans ), and no gossip about the show’s stars. There are no forums in which fans discuss the “hotness” of the actors and actresses, or debate the suitability of the characters’ romantic choices.
Instead, the site contains scholarly articles, some focusing on the entire series, one season, or specific characters, themes and episodes. They have footnotes, bibliographies and lofty-sounding titles, such as this sampling from past issues: “Warrior Heroes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Beowulf”; “‘ Restless’ Readings — Involution, Aesthetics and Buffy”; and “Apocalyptic Apocalypses: The Narrative Eschatology of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Despite the tweediness of it, Slayage the journal isn’t dry, staid or stuffy. Its essays are thoughtful, insightful and often uplifting analyses. Many are just plain fun, a term admittedly not usually associated with academic writing. SCHOLARLY FORCES AT WORK Like the Web site, the Slayage conference is serious business, given that most of the participants are denizens of academe there to engage in textual analysis. Therefore, there will be no people dressed as Spike (the leather-clad, bleached-blond vampire ) or any other Buffy characters. There will be no hawkers of wooden stakes, crosses, fake vampire teeth or any memorabilia people might associate with an event devoted to a show that has “vampire” in its title.
“It’s not a fan convention. It’s an academic conference,” says Wilcox, who, in addition to editing Slayage, is an English professor and television scholar at Gordon College in Barnesville, Ga. Often referred to as the mother of Buffy studies, she authored Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as numerous other critical, celebratory and analytical works.
She explains that a typical academic conference is devoted to a specific area of study; Shakespearean or Victorian literature, for example. Scholars from many levels of higher education present, or read, “papers.” Discussions follow.
The Slayage conference embraces the Whedonverses — Buffy the Vampire the Slayer, as well as defunct TV series Angel, the Buffy spinoff about a vampire with a soul, and Firefly, a science fiction / Western set in the future. Also included are the comic book Fray, and Serenity, a theatrical-release film featuring characters from Firefly.
There will be about 125 presenters and speakers during the three days of the Slayage conference. In several time slots each day, four sessions run concurrently, giving participants a plethora of choices.
While serious, the conference does “get with the fun,” too, given that the participants are unabashed fans of Joss Whedon’s work.
“It’s really a typical academic conference except that people are much more invested in the source material, more engaged in the subject matter than at some academic conferences,” Wilcox says. Spirited discourse is characteristic of Buffy studies conferences, she says, referring to Slayage events held in 2004 in Nashville and 2006 at Gordon College. Each attracted more than 200 Buffy devotees, not all from academe; some are independent scholars or professional writers, and a few are fans who crave contact with others who find Buffy not only entertaining, but also worthy of deeper consideration.
“People are interested in these wonderful creations and, because they’re so familiar with them, can discuss them in a very lively way,” Wilcox says. Also fun at Slayage meetings is being able to quote lines and allude to Buffy moments with everyone understanding the references. SLAYAGE IN A SMALL TOWN Buffy scholars travel far to satisfy their desire to share thoughts with peers. While many who will be attending hail from Southern and Midwestern states, there are scholars journeying from New York, California, England, Denmark, Germany, Australia and Italy.
How did a relatively small institution like Henderson State University attract an international conference like Slayage ? The answer is philosophy professor Kevin Durand, who has been a Buffy aficionado since the series debuted. Durand says he became acquainted with Wilcox and Slayage journal co-editor David Lavery (a respected television and film scholar ) at the first two conferences and simply suggested the third be held at Henderson. They were game, as was the university, so here comes Slayage.
Henderson’s curriculum doesn’t offer a specific Buffy studies course, but the show has been used in teaching some classes. In the fall, Durand says, there will be a course on pop culture and philosophy that will have as “texts” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Wizard of Oz and the Harry Potter books.
“Pop-culture studies gets a bad rap in my view,” Durand says. He invokes the names of ancient philosophers in noting the synergy between things pop and philosophical. “If you deal with Aristotle, Plato... they’re very much concerned with the theater of the day. It was sort of a launching point for much of the really good work that they were doing.” Likewise, pop-cultural creations today should be “a launching point for deep philosophical issues,” he says.
That Buffy functions as such is evidenced by the papers for presentation at the Slayage conference. Consider this by Janet Halfyard of the Birmingham Conservatoire in England: “Hero’s Journey, Heroine’s Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth.” Then there’s “Abandoned Religion in Buffy and Angel” by J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, and “I Have to Believe in a Better World: Utopian Longing in BtVS” by Grant Bain of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The fact that people take the time to research, write and present such papers attests to the validity of Buffy in particular and the Whedonverses overall as not just something to watch, but something to think about. And there’s nothing like a little academic validation to make a guilty pleasure a lot less guilt and a lot more pleasure. Rhonda Owen is a dedicated watcher of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all things Joss Whedon.
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