also, falls es jetzt noch jemand interessiert...heute war abgabetermin.
Die formatierung ist durch copy/paste jetzt natürlich unter aller Sau.
(Und dass das keiner einfach abschreiben und als eigene Arbeit ausgeben darf ist ja wohl auch so klar
)
und nochmal danke für die iddeen, besonders das mit highscool/collge
[Deckblatt]
I. Introduction: Television in America
In 1999, 98% of American homes had at least one television set which is watched for approximately four hours per day. This incredibly high percentage makes television the most important and influential medium, capable of shaping opinions and severely manipulating its audience, especially teenage viewers and children. Many parents are wary of the effect television might have on their offspring. There’s not only violence to worry about now, but political agenda: The media, and especially television itself has become target of countless political discussions. During the 2000 elections, popular culture became the scapegoat for the downfall of civiliza-tion, hoping that this campaign would convince people, especially concerned parents, to vote.
One of the many television series which caused controversy was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, created by Joss Whedon in 1996.
II. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – An American TV show
This popular American TV series consists of seven seasons, and ran from 1997 2003 on two different TV channels: Its first five seasons were shown on the familyfriendly “WB” network, whereas its last two seasons aired on “UPN”, a rather liberal TV network, which allowed the series intended for teens to explore “darker” and more mature themes. Its final episode aired on May 20, 2003, ending with a battle between Buffy and her friends, and “The First Evil”, who could only be defeated through the self-sacrifice of one of Buffy friends, and which led to the de-struction of Buffy’s fictional hometown, “Sunnydale”.
The series tells the story of a young girl named “Buffy Summers”, who lives in a fictional town in California and who is chosen to be “one girl in all the world”, a slayer, selected to fight vampires and demons, and to protect her friends, and ultimately, the world.
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – A contemporary metaphor
Danger surrounds Buffy and her friends every day, yet it is very notable that the fear of becoming a vampire correlates with the fear of becoming an adult – of the process of growing up.
Apart from fighting demons, the protagonist also have to cope with typical adoles-cent problems, such as bullies in school, hopeless crushes, unfair teachers, and strict, suspicious parents. In season two, for example, Buffy falls in love with An-gel, a vampire with a soul, who later turns evil due to a curse. The show serves as a contemporary parable which uses supernatural forces as metaphors for teenage fears and angst; and by projecting those fears into “live” demons an vampires, makes them vulnerable. In the form of evil creatures, those anxieties can be attacked and overcome: slain.
2. The main characters of the show
Let us now take a closer look at the different characters featured in the show. There is, of course, Buffy Summers, the former popular cheerleader who moves to Sunnydale, the town with its very own “Hellmouth”, where she is to find out about her sacred “destiny” and duty to fight the evil that emerges from aforementioned Hellmouth.
It is interesting to see how the concept of fighting evil in the show switches from simple “monster-of-the-week”, which will be slain at the end of each episode, to a season-encompassing Big Bad, that is no longer a dumb big monster, but for exam-ple a goddess with no fashion-sense from another dimension; beating Buffy not only concerning strength, but also wit. Things do not get easier when Buffy is forced to fight her best friend who can not control the power she has accumulated anymore, or when the First Evil appears in town. There is no longer a black-and-white scheme of good and evil, but many transitions: A vampire with a soul, and human with a gun blur the line between good and evil; and some “demons” turn out to be kinder than most humans, creating many shades of gray in a seemingly clearly defined world.
Always fighting by her side, and helping her through times of insecurity and doubt is Buffy’s loyal friend Xander: A typical teenager, who doesn’t have any super-power, and is often made fun of by his fellow students. His immaturity and self-consciousness reflects the stereotype of a teenage boy. Despite his rather good-looking appearance, he is very unsuccessful in his effort to establish a romantic relationship; especially at the beginning of the series, most women he is involved with eventually turn out to be some kind of demon. Even though he doesn’t have any supernatural qualities that would make him “useful” when fighting demons, his kindness, care, comic, and above all, loyalty, make him a valuable member of the “Scooby Gang”, as Buffy and her friends refer to themselves; always voicing his honest opinion and, from time to time, providing comic relief: Not everything is as hopeless as it seems and his adorable clumsiness never fails to lighten the mood.
His best friend Willow, a stereotypical computer nerd in high school, is capable of advancing the plot by hacking into secret files to produce any information needed. Throughout the first few seasons, she changes from a self-conscious, rather unpopular studious girl to a strong woman, capable of performing powerful witchcraft as well as neat magic tricks to cheer her friends up. Her homosexual relationship with fellow witch “Tara Maclay” was one of the very few realistically portrayed gay ro-mances in American TV.
The last recurring main character of the show is Rupert Giles, a “very English” middle-aged Briton, who is assigned to be Buffy’s “Watcher”, training her how to fight demons, and helping her to prepare for the many battles she has to survive. He soon turns from a strict supervisor into a caring father-figure, providing the male role model Buffy has been missing since the divorce of her parents. His affections for “his Slayer” eventually even leads to his suspension from the “Watcher’s coun-cil”, which believes that the Slayer is nothing but a replaceable instrument in the fight against the forces of darkness; after all, as soon as one Slayer dies, another one is called.
Many other characters are featured in the show; however they mostly appear only for a couple of episodes, or in irregular intervals, like “Angel”, a vampire with a soul, and Buffy’s first true love.
III. Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example for a typical American TV show
Why is Buffy the Vampire Slayer such a good example for a typical American TV series? First of all, and this makes the show unique, it has a heroine. In most horror movies, a blonde girl would take a shortcut through a cemetery, and get chased by a monster. Usually, the girl would be saved by a male hero, while she will be depicted as utterly helpless. The creator of the show “Buffy”, Joss Whedon, strove to change this stereotype. Especially American pop culture lacks female heroes, while at the same time the main goal of American society is “equal opportunity” for everyone, including, of course, woman. The series reflects this development; creating a hero-ine with extraordinary strength, accelerated healing and intuition. Instead of relying on (male) friends, she rather has to rescue them from certain death from time to time, inverting a common stereotype. While the show Buffy emphasizes “woman power”, it still isn’t a solely feminist show with a not-so-subtle message about equality; but rather stresses the importance of friendship and trust in a group: De-spite her slayer-strength, without her friends, even Buffy could be easily defeated.
Furthermore, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a good example for “The American Dream”: Here’s a little, inconspicuous girl, who, through training, effort of will, and endurance manages to rid the world from evil. It is an unbeaten path, but she won’t quit until she has achieved her goals. She is a model of the American idea that eve-ryone, no matter where they came from, how much their parents earn etc, can be successful in life, through nothing but hard work.
A rather down-to-earth reason why “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a typical Ameri-can TV show is the recurrent display of high school, and later, college life. In Germany, students usually choose the university closest to their hometown, and typically live in their parents’ house to save the mostly horrendous costs for rent in a big city, and use means of public transportation, and only in rare cases, their cars, to get to university each day.
However, American college students generally live on-campus during the whole semester, paying for tuition, housing, and dining. They mostly only return to their parents during the long term breaks; and only if they happen to live nearby, on weekends. The show “Buffy” includes all the possible problems this might bring: Ranging from annoying, even unbearable roommates to excessive parties on cam-pus and drop-outs who cannot handle the stress and new living conditions, and al-ready leave after a few days.
Facing high school/college life on the one hand, and supernatural forces, demons and vampires on the other hand, Buffy has to cope with a cornucopia of difficulties. It is interesting to note, though, that sometimes the “normal” problems, like parent-teacher nights, roommates, and exams seem a lot scarier than all the demons com-bined. In the end, however, Buffy manages to overcome problems relying on her wit and cunning, and her ability to socialize even in a stressful environment. She has become a role model for many American teenagers and young adults, especially since she lives a normal teenager’s life by day; bound by the same rules and restric-tions, terrorized by principals in spite of her slayer strength, and looked down upon by the “cool kids” at high school – something the majority of young students can identify with.
(Wordcount essay: 1,606)
Bibliography:
Secondary Literature:
Campbell, Richard and Caitlin, "Demons, Aliens, Teens and Television." Television Quarterly 34.1 (2001).
Mauk, David and John Oakland, American Civilization, An Introduction, New York: Routledge, 2003.
Wilcox, Rhonda V., “There Will Never Be a ‘Very Special’ Buffy: Buffy and the Monsters of Teen Life”. Journal of Popular Film & Television 27.2 (Summer 1999): 16-23.
Internet resources:
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.slayage.tv
