Girl Warriors: Feminist Revisions of the Hero's Quest in Contemporary Popular Culture

256 Pages·2019·3.341 MB·English

by  Svenja Hohenstein

Girl Warriors
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Girl Warriors
Feminist Revisions of the Hero’s Quest
in Contemporary Popular Culture
S H
venja oHenStein
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7664-7
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3739-6
LibraryofConGreSSandbritiSHLibrary
CataLoGuinGdataareavaiLabLe
© 2019 Svenja Hohenstein. all rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
front cover image: © 2019 Shutterstock
Printed in the united States of america
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
totheKatharinathalmann,
who helped me slay this dragon
acknowledgments
i first of all want to thank Michael butter for being open
to supervising a project about a vampire slayer, a girl revo-
lutionary, and a fighting disney princess, for the time he
invested in reading and commenting on my work, and for
his thoughtful and constructive feedback. the same applies
to my colleagues annika, albrecht, Laura, and Sarah, who
were always willing to read my chapters and give helpful
feedback. i also want to thank dr. nicole falkenhayner and
Prof. ingrid Hotz- davies for their nuanced criticism and
interesting discussions. i am furthermore indebted to the
Collaborative research Center 948, “Heroes, Heroizations,
Heroisms,” and its integrated research training group for
supporting me especially at the beginning of my project. a
special thanks goes to the people “behind the scenes”: Linda,
janine, annika, tom, aileen, and Hannah, and to the stu-
dents who attended my seminars on ya fiction, Girl Power,
and feminism and Popular Culture. i am especially grateful
to the fan artists for allowing me to print their images in
this book. thank you also to my friends from freiburg—
Lena, julia, Christian, robert, Sabine, Pia, Golnaz, and
Steve—for offering shelter, moral support, and coffee when-
ever i needed it. Most importantly, i want to thank Katha-
rina, my work wife and slapstick sister, without whom this
book would not have been written.
vi
table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: Representations of Girl Warriors
in Primary Texts
1. establishing the feminist Quest Heroine
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 19
2. adapting the feminist Quest Heroine:
the Hunger Games’ Katniss everdeen 51
3. Mainstreaming the feminist Quest Heroine:
Brave and the Warrior Princess 82
Part II: Representations of Girl Warriors
in Secondary and Tertiary Texts
4. Containing feminist Potential: Girl Warriors
in Promotional Paratexts 114
5. Promoting a Queer agenda in femslash fan fiction 147
6. affirming feminism, Challenging Whiteness:
Girl Warriors in fan art 175
Conclusion: Girl Power Politics 209
Chapter Notes 217
Bibliography 225
Index 245
vii
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introduction
any culture’s or individual’s myths of the hero tell us about what
attributes are seen as the good, the beautiful, and the true, and
thereby teach us culturally valued aspirations.—Pearson xxv
to this day, joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces(949)
remains the most important study on heroic myths.in this study, Campbell
compares heroic stories from different time periods and societies around the
world and establishes a model of mythological heroism in which the quest
or journey—divided into three stages: the separation, initiation, and return—
forms the basis of each story (30). Campbell delineates that, in the phase of
separation, the hero is called to fulfill his duty and embarks on a quest which,
in the beginning, he often does hesitantly and unwillingly. eventually, he
accepts his calling and sets out on a journey during which he has to overcome
obstacles and battle evil (36). during the quest, he grows mentally and/or
physically, developments which not only allow him to win a “boon” or reward,
but also enable him to take on a privileged and dominant position within his
community to which he eventually returns (246).
Campbell furthermore maintains that the main function of heroic nar-
ratives is to pass on knowledge and traditions and help people to make sense
of their lives and their communities (256). Scholars have called attention to
the fact that the knowledge and traditions passed on through quest stories
cultivate and help to institutionalize binary and hegemonic gender roles as
well as patriarchal systems of power (early and Kennedy ; Pearson 8). as
Mimi Schippers explains, “hegemonic masculinity can include physical
strength, the ability to use interpersonal violence in the face of conflict, and
authority” (9). indeed, the similarities between notions of hegemonic mas-
culinity and the traits of the quest hero are striking, as the latter is repeatedly
shown to excel in battle, triumph over others, and take on a privileged posi-
tion in his community. even though not all of the heroes mentioned by Camp-
bell use physical strength or violence to achieve their aims, the ability to fight
