Seers, witches and psychics on screen : an analysis of women visionary characters in recent television and film / Karin Beeler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beeler, Karin E. (Karin Elizabeth), 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women prophets on television.

Witches on television.

Women psychics on television.

Physical Description:

viii, 211 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, [2008]

Summary:

"This book addresses the pervasive representation of women with unique visionary abilities in postfeminist television series and films from the 1990s to the present. These women mediate between the living and the dead or between different worlds of experience, redefining "normal" and challenging the traditional boundary between science and the inner world of visionary, mystical experience"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Postfeminist Cassandras : Seers, "witches" and women who know the future

Cheerleader/seer : the hybrid visions of Cordelia Chase in Buffy, the vampire slayer and Angel

The transformation of River Tam : psychic warrior, female prodigy and anti-hero in Firefly and Serenity

Phoebe and the power of sight : the witch as seer in Charmed

Visions of the "mad" outsider in Hex : Cassandra, witches and lesbian appetite

Postfeminist savior : seeing the future and reliving the day in Tru calling

Joan of Arc in contemporary television : images of a reluctant seer

Teen visions of God : postfeminist heroism and genre crossing in Joan of Arcadia

Joan of Arc in Niagara Falls : signs of a seer and cross-cultural contact in Wonderfalls

Investigating the dead : mediums and psychic detectives

Psychic women, "dead" men and the search for truth : cross-gender communication in Ghost, The gift and Premonition

Rescue mediums and psychic investigators : television for women and paranormal programming

Resisting the myth of the bad mother : psychic visions and maternal anxiety in NBC's Medium

Looking for closure : investigating mothers, daughters and disease in Ghost whisperer

A medium's visions of a third space : finding family in the U.K. series Afterlife.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-201) and index.

ISBN:

9780786433469

0786433469

OCLC:

228498032