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Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter and Bob Batchelor Editors. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture is a collection of essays which focuses on women as heroes in a variety of mediums. Several of the essays use Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" as a framework to explore the ways in which popular culture portrayals of women either subvert or conform to Campbell's paradigm. The authors of the essays represent academics from several disciplines, aspiring academics, historians, fiction writers, professional writers, and cultural anthropologists. The diversity of authorial voices, including men and women, creates an exciting compilation of articles that challenge and redefine the definition of heroine.
While the collection certainly addresses common television and film heroines such as Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ellen Ripley (Alien series), Wonder Woman, Xena (Xena Warrior Princess), and Laurie Strode (Halloween), discussions also include newer heroines such as Bo (Lost Girl), Joan Harris (Mad Men), and Nancy Botwin (Weeds). The heroines discussed are mostly from the last thirty years or so, but there is...