Cult TV Heroines: Angels, Aliens and Amazons

From Mrs Peel to the first female Doctor Who, this book offers a timely focus on the popular phenomenon of the cult TV heroine. The enduring phenomenon of cult TV itself is carefully explored through questions of genre, the role of the audience and the external environment of technological advances and business drivers. Catriona Miller then suggests a fresh account of the psychological dimension of the phenomenon utilising Carl Jung’s concepts of the transcendent function and active imagination.

Her analysis of the heroines themselves considers the workings of the audio-visual text alongside narrative and character arcs, exploring the complex and contradictory ways in which the heroines are represented. Established cult TV favourites such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X Files, and Xena: Warrior Princessare examined alongside more recent shows such as Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Jessica Jones and American Horror Story: Coven

Catriona Miller is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and Journalism at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. She teaches film theory and media policy, and her research interests include cult TV, the archetypal dimensions of science fiction, horror and fantasy genres, and she has published in Jungian film and television studies.