Buffy in the Classroom

This book combines the academic and practical aspects of teaching by exploring the ways in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer is taught, internationally, through both interdisciplinary and discipline-based approaches. Essays describe how Buffy can be used to explain—and encourage further discussion of—television’s narrative complexity, archetypal characters, morality, feminism, identity, ethics, non-verbal communication, film production, media and culture, censorship, and Shakespeare, among other topics.

Jodie A. Kreider is an academic historian and lecturer in arts, humanities and social sciences at the University of Denver. Her work has been published in the North American Journal of Welsh Studies.

Meghan K. Winchell is an associate professor of history at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Edited by Jodie A. Kreider and Meghan K. Winchell

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 231
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5964-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-6214-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix
Introduction: “Let’s Have a Lesson Then”
JODIE A. KREIDER and MEGHAN K. WINCHELL      1

To Spoil or Not to Spoil: Teaching Television’s Narrative Complexity
DAVID KOCIEMBA      7
“Have You Tried Not Being a Slayer?” Performing Buffy Fandom in the Classroom
JASON LAWTON WINSLADE      22
And the Myth Becomes Flesh
TANYA R. COCHRAN      35
Round Up the Usable Suspects: Archetypal Characters in the Study of Popular Culture
BARRY MORRIS      46
Heroism on the Hellmouth: Teaching Morality Through Buffy
K. DALE KOONTZ      61
Whedon Takes “the Scary” Out of Feminism
MEGHAN K. WINCHELL      73
Buffy Goes to College: Identity and the Series-Based Seminar Course
ROD ROMESBURG      83
Ethics Homework from the Hellmouth: Buffy Stakes Her Claim in the First-year Composition Classroom
KEITH FUDGE      94
College Isn’t Just Job Training and Parties: Stimulating Critical Thinking with “The Freshman”
MELISSA C. JOHNSON      103
“Can’t Even Shout, Can’t Even Cry” But You Can Learn! Non-Verbal Communication and “Hush”
BRIAN COGAN      .      114
“Show, Don’t Tell”: Teaching the Elements of Film Production
JANE MARTIN      126
Television, Violence and Demons: Discussing Media Effects with the Vampire Slayer
ROSIE WHITE      136
Weeding Out the Offensive Material: Beaut y, Beasts, “Gingerbread,” Television, Literature and Censorship
LEITH D ANIEL      146
“Best Damn Field Trip I Ever Took!” Historical Encounters In and Out of the Classroom
JODIE A. KREIDER      158
Little Red Riding … Buffy? “Buff y vs. Dracula” in Explorations of Intertextuality in Introduction to College English
K RISTOPHER KARL WOOFTER       169
Buffy the Black Feminist? Intersectionality and Pedagogy
PATRICK R. GRZANKA      186
Slaying Shakespeare in High School : Buff y Battles The Merchant of Venice and Othello
JULIA L. GRANT      202

About the Contributors      213
Index      215

“for secondary school teachers and college professors…illustrated how to use themes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to teach multiple and interdisciplinary subjects”—Reference & Research Book News.