Research Catalog

Title

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

Author

Beeler, Karin, 1963-

Publication

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 211 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

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.

Subject

• Women prophets on television
• Witches on television
• Women psychics on television

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-201) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

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.

ISBN

• 9780786433469 (softcover : alk. paper)
• 0786433469 (softcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2008036567

OCLC

228498032

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library