Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts: Anthropological Perspectives on the Sacred and Psychology in Film and Television

Drawing from social theory and the anthropology of religion, this book explores popular media’s fascination with dreams, pagan gods and goddesses, vampires, and spirits. Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts does so in the light of anthropological studies of societies in which human persons are not merely a source of entertainment, but a lived social reality. Films and programs explored include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Twin Peaks, Star Trek 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. As well as drawing on theories of film from Freudian psychology and feminist theory, Dreams, Vampires and Ghosts also 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.