Seers, Witches And Psychics On Screen: An Analysis of Women Visionary Characters in Recent Television and

This book addresses the pervasive representation of women with unique visionary abilities in postfeminist television series and films from the 1990s to the present. Whether the female characters take the form of seer figures, witches, mediums, or women with the ability to see or know the future, these "women of vision" suggest unique ways of constructing female heroes as saviors in a postfeminist era. 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. History and myth mention many female visionaries, but Cassandra and Joan of Arc stand above the rest as the most imitated icons for modern "women of vision" in popular culture. Fittingly, the first two sections of this book offer an examination of several television series or films which use these legendary women as key prototypes or points of departure for their own heroines or protagonists. Section one 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. Section two 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, section three 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.

Karin Beeler is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, Canada. She is also the author of Tattoos, Desire and Violence: Marks of Resistance in Literature, Film and Television (2006). She lives in Prince George.