Just had this in a conference mailing list I'm on. I guess you've gotta have some comforts whilst doing the lonely library thing, and Buffy Pseuding seems to be it... long and random, but enjoy...

"I just followed the bodies": Corporeality and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Northeast Modern Language Association Convention
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
March 3-7, 2004

In the episode "Seeing Red," Willow tells Tara, "We'll decipher codes and
foil evil schemes." Her statement speaks to the ways in which the plots of/in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer center on acts of (re)interpreting signs. Throughout
the series, Buffy's life is marked by a "slay-study double feature" as
characters convene in the library, their homes, the Magic Box, to research the
Hellmouth and its demonic activities. The "study sessions" that are guided by the
Watcher who pours over ancient texts and Willow who searches the web illustrate
different methods of identification and interpretation. In the episodes,
bodies are transformed-from human to demon/vampire/god, from innocent bystanders
to victims, schoolgirls to slayers-and replicated-as spells and magic breed
doubles and switched-bodies. The "evil schemes" are mapped on/through the
characters' bodies, illustrating the possibilities and limitations of transforming
the body, (re)signifying shape and form. These bodies perform as texts for
others to (mis)read. After seven seasons, the closure brought by the series'
final episode leaves another body in its wake: Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a
textual body. Angel's statement, "I just followed the bodies," performs in myriad
ways, demonstrating the ways in which characters decipher the signs within
the series and the ways in which one begins to critically dissect the text of/in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In the series, plots hinge on the (mis)readings of replicated, transformed,
switched, and marked bodies; this panel will explore how we read the body in/of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This panel will explore the conversations between
contemporary "body theory" and the bodies inscribed within the series to
analyze the relationship between the body and discourse. How are the bodies in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer inscribed and then read? What are the limits and
possibilities of reading and reinscribing the body revealed in/through Buffy the
Vampire Slayer? How do we critically approach the bodies within the series and
the series itself? How do we critically (de)construct the body of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer?