Full Description
Although 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 issues—power and resistance, freedom and servitude, class and gender—while 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 politics, philosophy, and psychology and its representations of race and gender. Several essays explore the show's complex relationship to transhumanism: considering the dark potential for dehumanization and abuse that lurks beneath the promise of turning bodies into temporary vessels for immortal, downloadable personalities.
Though a short-lived series, Dollhouse has been hailed as one of television's most thoughtful explorations of classic science fiction themes. As the first serious treatment of this landmark show, this collection will interest science-fiction scholars and Whedon fans alike.
Contents
Acknowledgments
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
