Seers, Witches and Psychics on Screen

An Analysis of Women Visionary Characters in Recent Television and Film

Add to my list

by Karin Beeler

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

women, paranormal, witches

Publishing date

2008

Publisher

McFarland & Co

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 219 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7864-3346-9

User Ratings

(0 vote)

X

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:
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 what it means to be “normal” and challenging the traditional boundary between science and the inner world of visionary, mystical experience.

Part 1 includes a discussion of modern-day Cassandra figures, including the witches and other “seers” of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Charmed, Hex, and Tru Calling. Part 2 discusses modern television shows whose main characters represent a contemporary spin on Joan of Arc, including Joan of Arcadia and the short-lived Wonderfalls. Finally, Part 3 investigates female mediums and other “psychic detectives” in reality television series such as Psychic Investigators and Rescue Mediums; the popular television dramas Medium, Ghost Whisperer, and Afterlife; and contemporary films such as Ghost, The Gift, and Premonition.

About the Author:
Karin Beeler is the English department chair at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada. She has published in various areas of film and television studies, including screen culture for children.

Press Reviews:
"accessible and readable for researchers and undergraduates alike"—Critical Studies in Television.

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co