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BUFFY HEREAFTER: From the Whedonverse to the Whedonesque:

An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Work of Joss Whedon and its Aftereffects.

17-19 October 2007

Istanbul, TURKEY

Keynote: David Lavery, (Brunel University) Keeping the Faith: Joss
Whedon's "Religion in Narrative" and Contemporary Television

XANDER: Whoa, Giles has a TV. Everybody, Giles has a TV. He's shallow like us.

OZ: I got to admit, I am a little disappointed.

WILLOW: Well maybe it doesn't work. Like a piece of art.

Xander turns the TV on. Willow is open mouthed with shock.

GILES: Public television. Come on everyone we have vital work to do.
Watching television is not going to help us right now.

TV: - near the UC Sunnydale campus. Officials attribute the unusual
occurrence to weakening of the supporting topsoil nearby. City work
crews denied any tunneling has been done in the area.

GILES: Tunneling. Spike. Xander, find Buffy and meet us there.

The Harsh Light of Day (4003)

When all potential slayers became actual slayers, Buffy the Vampire
Slayer (BtVS) was over. The question remains if, by its demise, BtVS
turned all television series into potential Buffys. Is there a 'before
and after' to television series, with BtVS occupying the point of
transition? What are Buffy's successors? What are Buffy's
predecessors? Have television series become Whedonesque? Is 'quality
television' synonymous with Whedonesque? What is Whedonesque?

In hope of finding possible answers to such questions, papers are
solicited on any aspect of the television series created by Joss
Whedon, namely, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. This is
an interdisciplinary conference therefore, possible disciplines
include but are not limited to: film studies, TV studies, media
studies, cultural studies, feminist studies, masculinity studies,
lesbian and gay studies, queer studies, transgender studies,
literature, music, philosophy, sociology, history, architecture.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute presentations. Panel proposals for
up to three speakers are also welcomed. Please send abstracts of no
more than 350 words to:

Tuna Erdem, tunaerdem_at_independentscholars.org

Deadline for abstracts: 15th of June

For further details the conference web site is at:
http://www.independentscholars.org

Possible Streams or Food For Thought:

A) Defining the Whedonesque: "Is that why time went David Lynch on me"

What are the characteristics that define the style of Whedon? What are
the narrational preferences and narrative strategies that Whedon
repeatedly employs?

Is Whedon an author? Is he the type of postmodern author called
"author as fan"? Are the creators of TV series, the new authors?

Comparisons between Whedon series and its contemporaries in 'quality
television' like Six Feet Under, Veronica Mars, Nip/Tuck, Smallville,
Carnivale, Lost etc.

Twin Peaks as the predecessor of the Whedonverse.

Whedonesque construction of time: Whedon's use of flashbacks and flashforwards.

Character arcs with sharp intertextual twists: Cordelia as popular
cheerleader- ascended being- mother of all evil or Wesley as repressed
gentleman- rouge demon hunter- loner anti-hero etc.

Stock actors and crossovers: Jasmine/ Zoe, Caleb/ Malcolm etc.

B) Psychoanalytic Reading: "Freud would've said the exact same thing.
Except he might not have done that little dance."

Is it possible to read Whedon's texts from Freudian, Lacanian, Jungian
or Kleinian perspectives? Is the supernatural really the unconscious?
Does Buffy have parental problems? Does the Whedonverse have an
unconscious? Is psychoanalytic insight an aspect of the Whedonesque?

Metaphors: Demons as the metaphors for the unconscious, possession as
the metaphor of the return of the repressed etc. Blood sucking as
metaphors of introjection etc.

Split characters and their relation to the splitting of the ego:
Angel/Angelus, Rupert/Ripper etc.

Bad object choice: demon lovers and doomed relationships

The mother and son Oedipal dynamic: Spike and his mother, Principal
Wood and his mother.

The death drive and death as the slayers gift.

Depression, melancholia and Angel

Giles as the Name of the Father

Lacan's Imaginary: dream sequences, prophetic dreams, Cordelia's visions.

Le Real: The Hellmouth, Apocalypse, Reavers

Jungian archetypes in the Whedonverse.

C) Perverse Sexuality: "He is evil but you should see him naked"

If quality television can be defined by its adult content, and if
adult content equals sex then how adult is the Whedonverse? How are
alternative sexualities represented? Does the subtext rapidly become
the text in the Whedonverse? How does the Whedonverse compare to other
quality television universes in terms of representing sexuality?

Textual lesbians: Willow, Tara, Kennedy

Subtextual gay couples: Angel and Wesley, Angel and Xander, Spike and
Xander, Spike and Angel

Sexual fantasies: "Mind screens" of fantasizing characters.

Textual sadomasochist couples: Spike and Buffy, Spike and Drusilla,
Xander and Anya, Vampire Willow and Angel, Oz and Veruca, Wesley and
Justine, Riley and Vampires, Riley and Faith, Xander and Faith

Subtextual Sadomasochism: Bondage, fetish costumes, spanking references.

Demon loving as a form of bestiality and vampire loving as a form of
necrophilia.

D) Satellite worlds: "Action figures, fully deployed"

If Whedon is an "author as fan" has his fans also become authors? How
much does fandom contribute to the Whedonverse and the creation of the
Whedonesque? If quality television is the new cinema, what happens
when series become films or vice versa?

Buffy Graphic novels and the Eighth season of BtVS

Buffy Computer Games and characters as avatars of fans

Fan Fiction and subtexts that rapidly become texts

Serenity and the last episode as a film

Whedonesque and Buffy studies

OZ: It was stupid to think that you'd just be... waiting.

WILLOW: I was waiting. I feel like some part of me will always be
waiting for you. Like if I'm old and blue-haired, and I turn a corner
in Istanbul and there you are, I won't be surprised. Because... you're
with me, you know?

OZ: I know. (Pause) But now is not that time, I guess.

New Moon Rising (BtVS, Season 4, Episode 19)

Now it is that time. Don't wait any longer, turn a corner in Istanbul
and let us meet at the Buffy Hereafter: From the Whedonverse to the
Whedonesque: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the work of Joss
Whedon and its Aftereffects, at Istanbul.

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Received on Sun Apr 22 2007 - 15:34:57 EDT