Description
Book SynopsisAlthough it lasted barely more than a season, Dollhouse continues to intrigue viewers as one of Joss Whedon's most provocative forays into television. The program centered on men and women who have their memories and personalities repeatedly wiped and replaced with new ones by a shadowy corporation dedicated to fulfilling the whims of the rich. This chilling scenario was used to tell stories about big issuespower and resistance, freedom and servitude, class and genderwhile always returning to its central themes of identity and individuality. In Joss Whedon's Dollhouse: Confounding Purpose, Confusing Identity, Sherry Ginn, Alyson R. Buckman, and Heather M. Porter bring together fourteen diverse essays that showcase the series' complex vision of the future. Contributors probe deeply into the fictional universe of the show by considering the motives of the wealthy clients and asking what love means when personalities are continually remade. Other essays consider the show's relations to
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Fantasy Is His Business, But It Is Not His Purpose: An Introduction to Joss Whedon and His Storytelling Alyson R. Buckman Part 1. Self and Identity Chapter 1: “I’ve Watched You Build Yourself From Scratch”: The Assemblage of Echo Michael Starr Chapter 2: “We Are Not Just Human Anymore”—Accepting the Posthuman Future Meg Saint Clair Pearson Chapter 3: Anamnesis, Hypomnesis, and the Failure of the Posthuman in Whedon’s Dollhouse Margo Collins Part 2. Ethics Chapter 4: ‘What about the laws?’—Regulation and the Celebration of Resistance Tom Garbett Chapter 5: Somebody’s Asian on TV: Sierra/Priya and the Politics of Representation Ananya Mukherjea Chapter 6: “In my house and therefore in my care”: Transgressive Mothering, Abuse, and Embodiment Samira Nadkarni Chapter 7: “I possess the means to satisfy my vagaries:” What Motivates the Dollhouse Clients? Heather M. Porter and Sherry Ginn Part 3. Structure and Form Chapter 8: “Who Did They Make Me This Time?”: Viewing Pleasure and Horror Bronwen Calvert Chapter 9: “I love him . . . Is that real?” Interrogating Romance Through Victor and Sierra Lorna Jowett Chapter 10: The Theatre of the Self: Repetitious and Reflective Practices of Person and Place Joel Hawkes Chapter 11: “We’re Lost. We are not Gone”: Critical Dystopia and the Politics of Radical Hope Derrick King Chapter 12: Welcome to the Dollhouse: Reading Its Opening Title Sequences David Kociemba Chapter 13: Ritual, Rebirth, and the Rising Tide: Water and the Transcendent Self Ian G. Klein Series Episode List About the Contributors Index
