Configuring Memory in the Buffyverse

Abstract

In this chapter, I look more closely at transmedia fandom through an examination of audience engagement with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossmedial franchise. Originating as a feature film, Buffy evolved into a popular and well-regarded television series that in turn produced its own televisual spinoff and spawned a wide range of other media such as comics, board games, toys and videogames. In common with other fandoms, Buffy fans are indeed, as Self observes, a diverse group of people who negotiate the franchise’s transmedial content in a wide variety of ways, though the shared values of ‘cosmopolitanism and tolerance’ suggest they’re also rightly described as a ‘community’. For some fans, the Buffy merchandise Self speaks of is intrinsic to their identity and this sense of community, but it might also be seen as integral to maintaining the particular identity of the Buffy brand.

Yes, black, brown and white nerds; girl and boy and intersex nerds; gay nerds and straight nerds; old and young nerds — and I love them all. One of the most heartening phenomena in today’s Britain is the great diversity of the modern nerd — the nerd is out and proud, and while she may love Buffy the Vampire Slayer merchandise more than is strictly warranted, she is in every way to be cherished as an exemplar of cosmopolitanism and tolerance.

Self (2013)