Book Reviews

Undead, Gothic, and Queer: The Allure of Buffy

by Pamela O’Donnell

Elena Levine & Lisa Parks, eds., UNDEAD TV: ESSAYS ON BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 209p. bibl. index. notes. ISBN 978-0-8223-4043-0.

Rebecca Beirne, ed., TELEVISING QUEER WOMEN: A READER, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 251p. bibl. index. notes. ISBN 0-230-60080-8.

Benjamin A. Brabon & Stéphanie Genz, eds., POSTFEMINIST GOTHIC: CRITICAL INTERVENTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 189p. index. notes. ISBN 0-230-00542-X.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer( BtVS) died twice in the course of the series. canceled, expired material for maxi- may well be the most analyzed televi- Perhaps more than any other televi- mum return” (p.5). Can anyone say sion show in the history of the me- sion show, BtVS deserves to be called Knight Rider? dium. Try to name another series that “undead TV,” the title chosen by Elana Because the introduction raises so has its own academic conference or its Levine and Lisa Parks for their anthol- many interesting points about BtVS’s own peer-reviewed journal.1 A quick ogy of eight essays exploring the cul- afterlife — including how the show’s search of Amazon.com turns up more tural impact of BtVS (p.3). move from the WB to UPN may have than a dozen scholarly volumes about doomed the two “netlets” — it’s frus- the show — from the ground-breaking In the acknowledgements section trating to discover that very few of the Why Buffy Matters to the soon-to-be- of Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vam- essays use this as a point of departure published Buffy Goes Dark: Essays on pire Slayer, Levine and Parks note that for their analysis.2 Indeed, more than the Final Two Seasons. The editors of the idea for the collection began after a half of the essays seem frozen in amber, Undead TV rightly refer to this televi- “Console-ing Passions” conference (see failing to acknowledge anything after sion series as “a cultural phenomenon http://www.cp.commarts.wisc.edu/ the show’s fifth season. Not only do the that epitomizes trends in the produc- home/index.htm) at Notre Dame in authors rely on out-dated references tion and reception of commercial tele- 2000, three years before the BtVS series (Ally McBeal — really?), but they also vision and offers provocative commen- ended. In the seven years between the neglect to engage recent scholarship taries on matters of gender, sexuality, book’s conception and publication, on the series or to talk about changes class, race, and age” (p.2). That people both the world and television changed in television dissemination and recep- are still talking and writing about the — a lot — and the editors use the in- tion. Despite these drawbacks, and the show five years after the last original troduction to convince the reader that unmet expectations raised by the intro- episode aired is a testament to its en- Buffy still matters. They discuss the duction, there is still much to praise in during appeal. Given the popularity “afterlife” of a television series, how it Undead TV. of BtVS, it’s hardly surprising that epi- lives on in syndication (often global) sodes or characters from the series are and is perpetuated in DVD box sets, The volume opens with an es- analyzed in each of the books reviewed reissues, and merchandizing. The case say by Mary Celeste Kearney, who here. And because each volume has its of BtVS may be unique in that the reports that the WB purposefully used own defined discourse, readers have the show’s narrative continues in graphic programming that “targeted a multi- opportunity to view Buffy as undead, novel form in a series entitled Buffy the aged market whose members shared gothic, and queer. Vampire Slayer Season 8 and in a new a ‘youthful’ sensibility,” thereby mak- Fans of BtVS are well aware that multi-player online video game. Alas, ing BtVS’s appeal more about attitude death in the Buffyverse is rarely final. Undead TV was published before the than about age (p.19). Susan Murray Characters are brought back to life, debut of either the comic or the game, describes how film roles and advertis- exist in other dimensions (where there but the authors do make a convincing ing endorsements are often seen as may or may not be shrimp), and re- argument that “the structure of com- extensions of the star image of young visit the living in dreams. Buffy herself mercial television lends itself to the actresses such as Sarah Michelle Gel- constant recovery of used, terminated, lar, and how contemporary audiences, being excessively media-literate, expect

Page 16 Feminist Collections (v.29, nos.3–4, Summer–Fall 2008) Book Reviews to encounter and decode intertextual Levine believes that “in a post-femi- Lesbian and bisexual women references. Annette Hill and Ian Cal- nist culture, responsibility for change have a unique position in cutt tackle the foreign distribution of shifts from an organized social move- popular cultural representa- BtVS and Angel; the shows, perceived ment to individuals” while “third-wave tion. Simultaneously fe- by British broadcasters as genre suit- feminism remains invested in collec- tishized and ignored, desired able only for children, were edited for tive feminist activism and in the fight and disparaged, they have content, broadcast outside of prime- against a still powerful patriarchy” frequently been represented in time, and often pre-empted. Their (p.170). By analyzing the narrative, popular culture as either over- essay catalogs how difficult it was for sexed sirens or sexless creatures fans in the UK to watch the complete whose lesbian life warrants series and how these challenges col- nary a moment of screentime. ored their perception/reception. In a (p.4) critical study of television criticism, Amelie Hastie’s erudite essay explores Beirne offers a brief history high- “how popular texts such as Buffy lighting some of these problematic help to drive a ‘market demand’ in representations — from the lurid (Po- scholarly production” and asks how lice Woman) to the comic (Ellen and researchers might “avoid falling into Roseanne) to the daring (Sugar Rush). television’s own traps of ephemerality, She also traces moments of early obsolescence and market demands” political activism that demanded (pp.74–75). and won more balanced depictions Moving from production into of queer women on the small screen. content analysis, Cynthia Fuchs Beirne is the first to mention the investigates the identity categories website AfterEllen.com, a resource of youth and race in BtVS and the repeatedly referenced by authors in short-lived series Dark Angel, while the collection for its “news, reviews Allison McCracken’s essay explores and commentary on lesbian and “the construction of a new kind bisexual women in entertainment.” of masculinity” in the character of She concludes her introduction with Angel, Buffy’s vampire boyfriend a discussion of the scope of academic (p.117). In an essay both delightful publishing, noting that queer scholar- and insightful, she describes how ship has tended to focus on American the “highly penetrable” body of Angel and in particular the characters of and British shows and advocating that opens the possibilities of “alternative Buffy and Anya (both pre- and post- more attention be “paid to queer wom- sexual roles and practices” (p.125). Mc- vengeance demon), the author makes a en’s representation on television in the Cracken’s analysis carries through the compelling case for the show’s feminist rest of the world” (pp.13–14). While final episodes of both series and traces agenda, noting that “by turning her this may be a subtle apology for a col- how this new masculinity continues to power into our power, Buffy ends the lection completely focused on Ameri- be coded as queer in the spin-off Angel series as a truly New Woman” (p.185). can television shows, Beirne goes on to before the character regresses, assuming say that the purpose of this collection a more normative patriarchal role in Although the anthology Undead is to “acknowledge and gather together the show’s final seasons. Jason Middle- TV does unveil a subtext of queer discussion of existing work to provide ton, in his essay on depictions of Buffy desire surrounding the character of future scholars with a starting point for in the television show, in magazine Angel, there is an actual text of queer their research” (p.14). coverage, and as a comic book heroine, desire — the relationship between The first essay in this collection is analyzes the role of the male spectator. Willow and Tara — that is more fully unique in that it discusses the televised The concluding essay in Undead explored in Televising Queer Women: A personalities of Ellen DeGeneres, a TV is Levine’s own, and she does an Reader. In the introduction to this vol- — oh, let’s just say it — “seminal” excellent job of positioning the series ume the editor Rebecca Beirne lays the figure in the history of queer televi- within the discourses of postfeminism groundwork for further exploration of sion. Unlike the other authors in this and third-wave feminism. In brief, the subject. As she observes, collection, Candace Moore tackles

Feminist Collections (v.29, nos.3–4, Summer–Fall 2008) Page 17 Book Reviews the subject of an actual lesbian on to compare the film versions of the “a collaborator in the visual dilution TV, something quite different from a characters to their real-world counter- of his own purportedly feminist visual lesbian character on TV (who, as Kelly parts, finding that the two have little in text. Whedon is caught in the web of Kessler points out in her essay, is often common. In the end, she argues that Willow and Tara’s (in)visibility” (p.58). portrayed by a straight actress). Moore by using “heterosexual stars to draw an Illustrations from these photo spreads examines the “varied performative audience, thereby linking the sympa- would have been helpful to the reader, rhetorics” that Ellen uses in multiple thetic lesbian mother to social norms but the author acknowledges in a foot- genres (sitcom, talk show, comedy spe- of beauty, gender, and class…[these note how difficult it is to acquire im- cial) and contexts (daytime, primetime, films] simultaneously dismiss and dele- age rights. One finishes this essay with cable) to continually renegotiate/rein- gitimize divergent lesbianisms” (p.47). the nagging feeling that in the area scribe her lesbian identity (p.20). In of lesbian representation, the show’s an essay that is balanced when it could Similarly, the tyranny of beauty producers are damned if they resort to have been prescriptive, Moore eventu- and the male gaze are taken up by Tan- stereotypes and damned if they don’t. ally concludes that “Ellen performs her ya R. Cochran in her essay on the visu- But like Susan Murray in her essay in queerness through her daily dances al rhetoric of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Undead TV, Cochran does important — illustrating both her control over Since this collection was published work in exploring the production of what is expressed and her pleasure in before Buffy herself had the opportu- meaning in this increasingly omni-me- expressing it” (p.30). nity to experience Sapphic delight, this dia environment. Kelly Kessler’s essay, “Mommy’s essay instead focuses on the characters Got a Gal-Pal,” discusses several of “Wiccy” lovers Willow and Tara.3 In the second BtVS essay in Tele- made-for-television-movies with les- Cochran interrogates the image of vising Queer Women, Cynthea Masson bian themes. Kessler provides detailed ‘lesbian’ perpetuated by the BtVS series explores the rhetoric of questioning analysis of two movies about besieged and delineates how photographs in — be it locutionary, illocutionary, or lesbian mothers, What Makes a Family? men’s magazines of the actresses who perlocutionary — in Willow’s various with Brooke Shields and Two Mothers portray Willow and Tara, Alyson Han- relationships and incarnations, from for Zachary, starring Valerie Bertinelli. nigan and Amber Benson, complicate Vamp Willow to Dark Willow. As Since both movies were based on ac- that representation. As she states, “I the author notes, “Willow is Buffy’s tual events, she has the opportunity turn to theory to argue that neglecting questioner: the one who, from her first the exchange of ideas among dis- scripted line to her last, uses questions sonant images, texts, and audiences as means of establishing and securing denies the intricate interaction her relationships and a place of power of cross-media images and texts, within the Buffyverse” (p.66). In an il- ignores fans’ blurring of actor/ luminating account filled with dialogue character identities, and dilutes from the series, Masson traces the use Whedon’s feminist intentions” by various characters of language that (p.50). In prose that gets no less underscores their actions and motiva- convoluted, Cochran draws on the tions. The author does an excellent job work of Vito Russo, Barthes and of explaining and applying rhetorical Habermas (among many others) to analysis — stressing both the power of argue that the lack of clear visual language and that of silence. As Mas- markers in the depiction of Willow son demonstrates, the show’s commit- and Tara erases their lesbian visibil- ment to interpretive space extends to ity. At the same time, this invisible the final scene of the series, in which lesbianism allows the attractive Buffy, after being asked repeatedly young actresses to be tapped for se- what she now plans to do, “merely ductive photo spreads in magazines looks out at the landscape and smiles. such as FHM and Stuff,thereby She says nothing” (p.79). revivifying the power of the het- In addition to the two essays on erosexual male gaze. As a result, BtVS, this volume also features chap- the show’s producer Joss Whedon ters on lesbian representation in the becomes, according to Cochran, television series ER, Queer as Folk, Sex

Page 18 Feminist Collections (v.29, nos.3–4, Summer–Fall 2008) Book Reviews

in the City, and The O.C. Five of the ing us that bisexuality is normal and show (perhaps because of her faux mas- fourteen essays however (more than valid, but its actual depiction of bisexu- culinity), and I believe she plays a simi- a third of the book), deal with Show- ality remains unstable and conflicted” lar role in the narrative as the character time’s lesbian drama The L Word. This (p.171). While characters such as Alice of Brian Kinney does in Queer as Folk may not be surprising, for as Marnie and Jenny are sometimes portrayed — the unattainable object of desire.4 Pratt notes in her essay on audience as confused or immature, the author Despite this area of contention, Davis response to the show, “what sets The remains hopeful that their complex does illuminate the power of polysemic L Word apart is not only the fact that desires and motivations will continue texts, showing that series such as The L the majority of its main characters are to force the show’s audience and writ- Word can be “read” in a variety of ways lesbians, but also that these characters’ ers to “embrace sexual difference and by a diverse audience. lives, relationships, and political or to depict sexuality as open and fluid” social issues are the focus of the series” (p.176). Faye Davis, on the other Televising Queer Women: A (p.137). Pratt is troubled that the show hand, explores the power relations in Reader fulfills its editor’s stated goal of “clearly appears to be under the same the lesbian/bi community in “Paradig- bringing together contemporary criti- heteronormative conceptions of gender matically Oppositional Representa- cism on the topic of lesbian/bisexual and beauty as most other aspects of tions.” She posits that “lesbian sexual representation and serving as a point popular culture,” but finds hope in the identity in The L Word is represented as of departure for future study. Although responsiveness of the show’s producers settled and stable…[O]nly those who the book is geared toward an academic to the audience’s call for more balanced are bisexual appear to encounter any audience, general readers will find most and inclusive representation (p.142). identity issue” (p.179). Moorman and of the essays accessible, and the com- Davis both discuss the political expedi- prehensive index and bibliography are The constructs of femininity, or ency of adopting an essentialist mode valuable tools for those interested in more specifically, “fem(me)ininity,” of representation — that sexual orien- exploring the topic further. As noted are also the subject of Erin Douglas’s tation is not a choice — and show how previously, studies of contemporary essay, “Pink Heels, Dildos, and Erotic this position is complicated by the very popular culture can be hampered by Play.” Douglas argues that there are nature of bisexuality. Davis goes on to the relevance and currency of the ob- “moments in the series that show explore the character of Shane, not as a jects of analysis. In this instance, most queer femininity,” and that these mo- bisexual but as the “unambiguous site of the shows discussed in the volume ments demonstrate “that femininity for the lesbian part of the television are off the air or in their final season. does not signify normativity” (p.196). market to identify with” (p.192). Some Given the breadth and depth of schol- She quotes other respected theorists at may disagree with her contention that arship involved, however, this volume length to support her position, but this should continue to be viewed as a valu- tactic, oddly enough, makes her seem [d]epictions of feminine les- able resource. unsure of the authority of her own bians are displayed in opposi- voice. That being said, her “theorizing tion to Shane’s masculinized The love of all things Buffy leads the performance and performativity lesbian and provide a palatable one to a completely different realm in of fem(me)ininity” is an insightful and relatively normalized rep- the book Postfeminist Gothic: Critical addition to the field of queer studies resentation; meanwhile, Interventions in Contemporary Culture. (p.208). Shane allows an explicit ste- Somewhat less accessible, this volume Two of the essays on The L Word reotype and point of identifi- developed out of a special issue of address the show’s depictions of bisexu- cation for the lesbian commu- the journal Gothic Studies, published ality. Jennifer Moorman, in her essay nity. (pp.192–193) by Manchester University Press. The “Shades of Grey,” catalogs the difficulty book opens with an introduction by in representing bisexuality on screen It seems equally reductive and its editors, Benjamin A. Brabon and since the gender of a character’s cur- essentialist to argue that a character Stéphanie Genz, both of Napier Uni- rent love interest works to define his depicted as sexually promiscuous and versity in Edinburgh, who spend nearly or her sexual orientation as essentially commitment-phobic would be the a dozen pages delineating the potential heterosexual or homosexual. This dif- “point of identification” for the entire meanings of such descriptors as post-, ficulty is somewhat mitigated by the lesbian community. While not a les- feminist, postfeminist, Gothic, and serial narrative of television, but The L bian, I have to admit that I find Shane even post-Gothic. And, in a move that Word, as Moorman notes, “keeps tell- the most compelling character in the should surprise no one familiar with

Feminist Collections (v.29, nos.3–4, Summer–Fall 2008) Page 19 Book Reviews contemporary theoretical positioning, izes Gothic and feminist criticism and The spectral phallus is showcased the editors eventually decide not to invites new perspectives beyond the in one of the most thought-provoking artificially limit their investigation by theories of the second wave and the essays in the collection, Benjamin A. settling for any single definition. In- Female Gothic” (p.8). Brabon’s chapter on the postfeminist stead, they admit that their “underlying The introduction concludes with man as depicted in the films Falling aim in selecting the essays…has not a brief description of each of the essays Down (1992) and Fight Club (1999). been to secure the meaning of post- in the collection. With topics ranging As he says, “I argue that the crisis in feminism, to establish it, if you like, as from the Borg Queen to the spectral masculinity witnessed in these films a locus of truth, but rather provide a phallus, the chapters excavate the reflects the complex negotiation of space for debate where postfeminism postfeminist Gothic in a wide variety man’s position within contemporary remains open to interrogation” (p.3). of texts and media — film, television, society,” because “the sadistic forces It should be noted that unlike Levine, fiction, and even verse drama. In one of patriarchal violence are no longer who delineated the differences between of these descriptions, however, there is turned solely against women” (p.57). postfeminism and third-wave feminism a statement that seems to belie the edi- Since the postfeminist man now joins in her essay in Undead TV, the authors tors’ commitment to an anti-essential- woman as a victim of patriarchy, it in this collection choose to use the two ist mindset. They write, “The violence would have been interesting for Brabon terms interchangeably. inherent in heterosexual relationships to discuss what this new arrangement The introduction also offers useful [emphasis mine] is also taken up by might mean for women — both those background information for readers Judith Halberstam’s essay” (p.9). De- featured in the films and in society unfamiliar with Ellen Moer’s original spite this incongruous lapse, the editors as a whole. His argument that “the conception of “the Female Gothic” (a and authors of this collection appear female heroine cedes her position and product of second-wave feminist criti- committed to investigating the inter- role to the postfeminist man” remains cism) and the subsequent rejection of sections of postfeminist theory and the convincing, however, and he success- this category by writers who found it Gothic in a diverse range of texts. fully repositions these films as cultural guilty of “essentialism and universal- Given that so much time is spent markers of a time when the postfemi- ism” (p.7). This leads the reader nicely analyzing the nuances of postfeminist nist man “is struggling to keep a grip into a description of the new discourse, Gothic in the introduction, it is a bit on the spectral phallus” (p.66). “postfeminist Gothic,” which the au- disheartening for the reader to discover Speaking of phalluses, another thors describe as a “contentious new that every author in the collection movie that wouldn’t at first glance be category and critical realm that revital- feels compelled to revisit the debate considered a postfeminist Gothic tale and provide his or her own interpreta- is, of course, Bride of Chucky. Judith tion and positioning. This aside, all Halberstam has written an informative of the essays are thoughtful and well (and entertaining) history of the neo- reasoned, although some may be more splatter genre and a “penetrating” anal- accessible to a general audience than ysis of this film in particular. Where others. Rhonda Wilcox (editor of the else could one contemplate Chucky (a aforementioned Why Buffy Matters) voodoo-enhanced, pedophile-soul con- does an excellent job of summarizing taining, serial-killing child’s toy) as a the characters and plot development “lesbian phallus” — an “alternative site of a different television series in her of erotogenic pleasure” (pp.36–37)? analysis of TNT’s Witchblade, a show Those familiar with the film may not that even she can’t help but describe as be surprised at Halberstam’s assertion “overwrought” (p.45). Wilcox outlines that its most horrifying prospect is that the various Gothic elements of this of heteronormativity, particularly since fantasy series. About the decision of the the titular bride is martyred giving show’s writers to “re-boot” the series birth to the seed of Chucky. in the finale of season one by having Since BtVS is the connecting time run backward, “to return to the theme among the three works under first day of the story,” Wilcox ascribes review here, an essay by Claire Knowles postfeminist motives to their rejection on the show’s heroine and her shadow/ of “patriarchal narrative” (p.52). nemesis, Drusilla, merits attention. In

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“Sensibility Gone Mad,” Knowles links lenging for those uninitiated into the engages and foregrounds “the contra- the characters of Buffy and the vampire oft-tortured prose of contemporary dictions, ambiguities, and multiplicities Drusilla to the Gothic fiction of Ann theory. Botting may also be the most involved in these critical positionings” Radcliffe and the protofeminist writing troubled by the construct of postfemi- (p.12). And, as befits a scholarly vol- of Mary Wollstonecraft. As she puts it, nism. Early in the essay he notes, ume, all of the essays include notes and “One of the key elements that connects a list of works cited. Radcliffe’s and Wollstonecraft’s writings “Post,” for all the illusions of Each of the volumes under review is their simultaneous investment in, a progressive movement (be- helps illuminate discourses of identity, and yet interrogation of, the discourse yond the limitations of feminism, power, capitalism, etc., as re- of sensibility” (p.142). Knowles does modernity or feminism) that flected in popular culture. As products a convincing job of positioning Buffy its dismissive gesture implies, of a specific time and place, the anthol- as someone who “embodies many of seems to sanction only ogies help readers identify key charac- the typical elements required of a Rad- a disavowal that liberates a teristics of their own position and sub- cliffean heroine of sensibility” — she shift to an ateleological circu- jectivity within these larger discourses. is young, beautiful, blonde, watched lation of banal monstrosities, They are also valuable contributions to over, and physically trapped by her commodified presentations, their respective disciplines and are cer- destiny as a vampire slayer (p.146). consumerist desires evacuated tainly worthy additions to individual Drusilla, on the other hand, represents and exhausted by the entre- and library collections. And I think we “sensibility that cannot be governed by preneurial creation of hybrid can all agree with Giles, tweedy librar- rationality” (p.151). Her madness is an novelties. (p.172) ian and Buffy’s watcher, when he says, excess of sensibility, a condition Woll- “I still prefer a good book.”5 stonecraft warns readers of in A Vindi- On that happy note, Botting cation of the Rights of Women. Because draws on a host of French theorists, Notes BtVS seems so much a product of its including Deleuze and Guattari, Bau- 1. Slayage: The Online International time, Knowles’s essay succeeds by un- drillard, Irigaray, Lacan, and Lyotard, Journal of Buffy Studies(ISSN 1546- derscoring the surprising connections in his essay, which eventually analyzes 9212) has already published twenty-six between this contemporary text and the four Alien films. He notes that by issues at http://slayageonline.com. eighteenth-century discourses of female the final film, Alien Resurrection, “post- 2. The Warner Bros. network (the WB) empowerment (p.152). human and post-feminist seem fully and United Paramount (UPN) merged Other chapters in Postfeminist realized…[T]he categories of human to become the CW network in 2006; Gothic include Luci Armitt’s discus- and gender appear obsolete, along with see http://articles.latimes.com/2006/ sion of contemporary women’s writing all the ideological bases — nature, jan/29/business/fi-buffy29. (After You’d Gone, by Maggie O’Farrell; bodies, feelings, ideals — that support 3. In the comic book series Buffy the Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson; Fin- them” (p.181). His optimism un- Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Issue 12, gersmith by Sarah Waters); an analysis abated, he concedes in his conclusion “Wolves at the Gate, Part 1.” of postfeminist Cinderellas by Stéph- that “[h]umans in the Alien series are 4. See http://www.youtube.com/ anie Genz; a comparison of the two almost exclusively unappealing. Mor- watch?v=LZSzzgg-Nvg. film versions of The Stepford Wives by ally if not physically deformed, they 5. BtVS, “I Robot, You Jane,” Season 1, Anne Williams; Diane Long Hoeveler’s are little more than meat by-products, Episode 8. dissection of the Candyman; an in- detritus, waste: post-modernism, post- vestigation of postcolonial and post- feminism, post-humanism, post-gothic [Pamela O’Donnell is an academic feminist Gothic in the writings of Nalo — a line of shite” (p.183). librarian at the University of Wisconsin– Hopkinson by Gina Wisker; Donna Taken as a whole, Postfeminist Madison. She attended Lawrence Heiland’s analysis of the verse drama Gothic deserves an audience, not only University (B.A., Art History and Beatrice Chancy; and Linda Dryden’s for its interrogation of varied texts that English, 1985) and the University of comparison of the Borg Queen in Star resonate with contemporary audiences, Wisconsin–Madison (M.A., Library Trek to Ayesha, the archetypal Gothic but also for the important work it does and Information Studies, 2002; M.A., villainess of She, H. Rider Haggard’s in creating a space within which theory Communication Arts–Media & Cultural Victorian-era novel. can be applied and debated. Or, to use Studies, 2003).] The final essay in the collection, the language of the editors, this volume by Fred Botting, may be the most chal-

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