Join Weird Fictions Research Group for the first Weird Medicine meeting this semester.
Joanna Kaniewska
Weird Halloween: Normal Again? The Portrayal of Mental Health(Care) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Monday, October 30, 2023
4.45PM
You can get 3 OZN points for participating in this event.
Where?
Dobra 55, room 1.271
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)
Register at: jkaniewska1991@gmail.com
Registration deadline: October 29 (Sunday), 2023 10PM
Limit: 15 people
Snacks and drinks: are welcome!
Cosplays: are very welcome! We especially encourage you to embrace the fashion of the early 2000s, but any spooky outfit will be appropriate, too!
What?
The Weird Fiction Research Group would like to invite you to a Halloween workshop! Together, we will watch and discuss an episode of the classic 90s TV show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In this episode, titled “Normal Again,” Buffy suddenly wakes up in a psychiatric hospital, without her Vampire Slayer powers… And everyone around her claims her life in Sunnydale was a delusion. What happened? Was her journey all an illusion? Or is there some other explanation of her current state?
We hope that “Normal Again” will spark an exciting discussion about the portrayal of mental illnesses and mental health institutions in this episode, as well as in other texts of American pop culture. We will talk about spooky psychiatrists, creepy nurses, toxic stereotypes, and many other things!
NOTE: You DO NOT have to know Buffy The Vampire Slayer in order to join the workshop! The screening part will be preceded by a very short introduction to the characters and the general lore of the show, so you won’t feel confused. Also, the episode works reasonably well as a stand alone contact with the franchise.
Who?
Asia Kaniewska is a translator and a PhD Student at the Doctoral School of Humanities of the University of Warsaw, Poland. Her current research focuses on the literature of American witches. Her academic interests include popular music, Japanese and American popular culture, science fiction, and weird studies. Sometimes, she writes about them on her blog “dziewiętnaście czwartych” (“nineteen fourths”) or talks about them in her radio show “dancing in dystopia” on Radio Kapitał.
