Female empowerment in "Buffy - the Vampire Slayer"

Bachelor Thesis , 2010 , 38 Pages , Grade: 2,0

English Language and Literature Studies - Other

Throughout the past centuries information has been conveyed between people through different media. In the last century the most important and successful medium has developed, namely television. It has never held more power than at the turn of the last millennium. In the western world, especially the United States of America practically every household possesses at least one television set, and this not only for information purposes, but mostly for the personal pleasure. This is why a lot of work and thought is being put into television programs that are designed for entertainment, such as films and series. In order to be successful, such a television series has to combine many factors. Besides having an entertaining plot, it also has to deal with issues that concern the viewer and are important to him, since in our medialized culture, television seems to be the one medium that reaches out to the largest amount of people. One of the most mesmerizing programs is the format of television series, where every week, the viewer can follow the development and lives of characters that have grown close to his heart because of the viewing frequency. Throughout the age of television, which can be seen as the second half of the 20th century, there have been many different series which have attracted a broad viewer range and glued the American public to the television screen every night. Not only sitcoms, such as Friends and Seinfeld have been such successes, but many series have used a Hollywood movie format, to captivate their viewers even more. Mostly these shows dealt with the issues that concerned their target, for example friendship, family lives, action, and of course romance. After the huge feminist movements in the 1960s, shows like Mary Tyler Moore or Charlie’s Angels tried to emphasized women’s strength, although the accomplishment of that can be argued about.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Feminism and the woman on the screen

3. The female hero

4. The women in BtVS
4.1. Buffy in Helpless(3x12)
4.2. Anya in Selfless(7x05)

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

• College: Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald
• Grade: 2,0
• Author: Natalia Gubergritz (Author)
• Publication Year: 2010
• Pages: 38
• Catalog Number: V412991
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668640160
• ISBN (Book): 9783668640177
• Language: English
• Tags: Buffy the vampire slayer, gender studies, literature, textanalyse, medialer text. female empowernment, frauen im tv, women on tv