Drawing from social theory and the anthropology of religion, this book explores popular media’s fascination with dreams, vampires, demons, ghosts and spirits.
Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts does so in the light of contemporary animist studies of societies in which other-than-human persons are not merely a source of entertainment, but a lived social reality.
Films and television programs explored include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twin Peaks, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Truly Madly Deeply and the films of Hitchcock.
Louise Child draws attention to how they both depict and challenge ideas and practices rooted in psychology, while quality television has also facilitated a wave of programming that can explore the interaction of characters in complex social worlds over time. In addition to drawing on theories of film from Freudian psychology and feminist theory, Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts uses approaches derived from a combination of Jungian film studies and anthropology that offer fresh insights for exploring film and television.
This book draws attention to explicit and subtle ways in which cinematic narratives engage with myth and religion while at the same time exploring collective dimensions to social and personal life.
It advances new developments in genre studies and gender as well as contributing to the growing field of implicit religion using in-depth analyses of communicative dreaming, the shadow, and mystical lovers in film and television.
By:
Louise Child
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350087101
ISBN 10: 1350087106
Pages: 194
Publication Date: 10 August 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Dreaming: Anthropology, Psychology, and the Study of Film and Television 2. Dreams as Detection: Trauma and Psychology in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock 3. Animism, Anima, and the Shadow in Twin Peaks 4. A Fairy Tale Heroine: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5. Ghosts and Spirits: Ghost, Poltergeist, and Afterlife. 6. Dreams Reprise: Mad Love, Mesmerism, and Mystical Participation in Heavenly Creatures and Bram Stoker’s Dracula Conclusion Bibliography Index
Louise Child is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Cardiff University, UK. She is the author of Tantric Buddhism and Altered States of Consciousness: Durkheim, Emotional Energy and Visions of the Consort (2007) and Co-editor (with Aaron Rosen) of Religion and Sight (2020).
Reviews for Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts: Anthropological Perspectives on the Sacred and Psychology in Film and Television
A fascinating application of new, more relational approaches to film and television, challenging the more typically individualist and psychologizing approaches. The films and TV series are evocatively discussed and will be relatively familiar so readers will be well-placed to reflect on Louise Child’s important arguments about religion, modernity, personhood and more. * Graham Harvey, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, The Open University, UK *
