I don't think we really need turn to either the Almighty or Alan Sokol to figure this out -- though perhaps some might find solace in doing so. I suspect that those who use the term "Buffy Studies" do so with an awful lot of self-conscious irony that sends up -- as much it emulates -- other more readily sanctioned auteurist or text-centered pursuits as, I dunno, say, Hitchcock studies. So maybe they're already a bit on your side. Just in case they're not, I imagine it's a bit of an umbrella term that in shorthand covers the convergence of a variety of issues -- genre, youth cultures, gender, etc. Clearly, though, there's an underlying problem. We ought to better discipline the boundaries of the field -- lest the Almighty notice that UNDERGRADUATES are beginning to care enough about writing to develop their own journal. I mean, they're not even credentialed, or anything. Next thing we know, a group of renegade youth will develop a journal of Sokol Studies. Oh, my! ;-) mk At 03:21 PM 5/7/2005, you wrote: >Steven P. Hill writes: > >>What in the name of the Almighty is "Buffy Studies"? Assuming that the >>"Buffy" posting (attached below) is not a belated April Fool's joke, it >>must be SOME sub-discipline within popular culture, which an old-timer >>like yours truly has never heard of... > >Oh, thank goodness! Your posting has gone some way to lifting me out of >the depression caused by Thursday's general election result. I thought >that this list had become so leftie, feminist and politically correct that >anyone who dared to ask such a question - if only rhetorically - would run >the risk of being escorted to a cellar and introduced to The Gimp (or >escorted up a hill and introduced to The Wicker Man - you get the idea). > >If your question is anything other than rhetorical I'm afraid I can't >provide much of an answer (well, not much of a printable one, anyway), but >in relation to sub-disciplines within popular culture, Alan Sokal & Jean >Bricmont, 'Intellectual Impostures' (London, Profile Books, 2003), might >be worth a look. The opening chapters of Barry Salt, 'Film Style & >Technology: History and Analysis' (2nd ed., London, Starword, 1992), most >certainly are. > >Best wishes >Leo > >Leo Enticknap >Curator, Northern Region Film & Television Archive >Middlesbrough, UK >www.nrfta.org.uk >---- >To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L >in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask] ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]