The majority of Buffy scholarship to date (including my own) has focused upon textual analyses, but some more recent work has begun to explore audience reception. For example, Fitzpatrick and Fischer (2002) analyzed messages posted to a newsgroup to study the nature of viewers’ affinity for their favorite character. Gwyn Symonds (2003) reminds us that the text does not determine individual readings of it and has used internet postings to study the responses of Spike fans to storylines in Buffy. However, further insight into viewer responses can be gained by talking to audience members specifically about their experiences. In this paper I report on a piece of empirical research in which I investigated the responses of a variety of regular Buffy viewers through in-depth interviews. While there were some interesting commonalities between participants, their responses suggest that personality and life experiences are important in understanding the meanings viewers attach to the characters and events in Buffy.

Fitzpatrick, J. and Fischer, J. (2002) Parasocial Relationships: A social-psychological perspective on affinity for favoured television characters’. Paper presented at Blood, Text and Fears conference, UEA, October.