Reading Joss Whedon ed. by Rhonda Wilcox et al. (review)

As noted in the introduction to this volume by one of its editors, Rhonda V. Wilcox, academic and critical texts exploring Joss Whedon’s television and film work were being published even while his cult-classic television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (US 1997–2003) was still on the air in its first run on American broadcast network The CW. Whedon’s work as a writer and director in the nearly 20 years since Buffy’s initial appearance – not to mention his previous and subsequent work in roles as varied as script doctor, actor and composer – has been prolific. As Wilcox’s introduction makes clear, a volume with a title such as Reading Joss Whedon is thus necessarily broad in scope, and ambitious in its aims. The aims of the editors are, in short, to provide an engaging introduction for critical material to a new audience, but also to gather together original criticism useful for any scholar interested in Whedon’s oeuvre. Critical works discussing Whedon’s work are as many and varied as his own output. Reading has been created and collated both as an introductory guide to Whedon’s work for the unfamiliar academic, and as a guide to the criticism and analysis for the fan who, unfamiliar with television and film studies, is seeking a new perspective on a favourite television show.

Containing 23 critical essays, not including the narrative overviews of Whedon’s three television series or the aforementioned introduction, the range of content and contexts examined reflects very well the breadth of the critical works available in Whedon Studies, and the variety of genres and formats in which Whedon himself works. The structure of the volume is excellent; the first five sections group essays by analysis of specific creative productions, while essays in the sixth section develop further some of the overarching themes that Whedon returns to across many productions. Descriptive introductions to the narratives and themes of the long-running series are certainly helpful for those unfamiliar with the source material, both in terms of basic plotting and character naming, as well as in highlighting and contextualising key themes that a reader can expect to find addressed by essays in that section. The contents pages also offer the reader the option to read not simply section-by-section, but by theme and topic. Six topics group the essays by their reference to issues of creative structure, such as ‘Narrative and Writing’ and ‘Character’, and five themes group essays by categories of critical analysis such as ‘gender’. For the academic and the fan readership alike, this organisational schema enables the reader to approach a lengthy collection with confidence in being able to read with purpose and focus.

One minor complaint about the structuring would be that the essays in the sections on the television series Buffy and its spin-off Angel (US 2003–7) so often deal with the same themes, narratives and characters that the separation into two sections by production title feels rather arbitrary. It also means that the section labelled as being wholly focused on the latter series contains only two essays, when in fact there was much relevant material in the previous section. Given that this project was long in development, and that the editors even solicited late additions to the collection to cover the film The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard US 2012), released late in the book’s production schedule, the otherwise excellent structural cohesion of the collection is a testament to impressive editorial commitment.

The selection of the essays included in this collection was clearly a careful and considered undertaking by the editorial team; there are, as expected, more essays on the longer-running series than on any other aspect of Whedon’s work, but these essays engage with previous commentary and critique as well as with the source texts themselves. Opening the first section with David Kociemba’s essay, in which he makes a strong case...