Search

The TV show Supernatural (2005–2020) features itinerant brothers Sam and Dean Winchester battling pagan gods from ancient Greco-Roman mythology who pose a threat to the present-day American way of life. The show utilizes two key concepts to define perils to American culture and values: the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism. In a remote town in Alaska (i.e., the frontier), the brothers encounter the Roman goddess Fortuna, who reveals to the Winchesters how they can protect America. Fortuna's appearance signifies a shift in how the show's heroes, Sam and Dean, see themselves: they are forced to experience the despair everyday Americans feel when their luck runs out. A critical analysis of several key episodes will demonstrate that as the series advances, the focus on the brothers' erasure of pagan threats to America is replaced by a critique of monotheistic religion, a reexamination of the myth of American exceptionalism, and social commentary on the problems with a culture based on consumerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years Supernatural (CW, 2005-) has gained the status of a cult series as well as one of the most passionate and devoted fandoms that has ever emerged. Even though the main concept of the series indicates that Supernatural should appeal predominantly to young male viewers, in fact, the fandom is dominated by young women who are the target audience of the CW network. My research is couched in fan studies and audience studies methodological perspectives as it is impossible to understand the phenomenon of Supernatural without referring to its fandom and fan practices. However, it focuses on the series' structure in order to explain how this structure enables Supernatural's viewers to challenge and revise prevailing gender roles. Supernatural combines elements of divergent TV genres, traditionally associated with either male or female audiences. It opens up to gender hybridity through genre hybridity: by interweaving melodrama with horror and other "masculine" genres the show provides a fascinating example of Gothic television which questions any simplistic gender identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on adoption of interdisciplinary methodology for administration of research in horror genre. Topics discussed include deployment of an interdisciplinary approaches in assessment of horror scholarships; proposal of Noël Carroll over representation of horror stories with geographic depiction of monsters origin; and argument of Christina Klein over an impact of globalization over proliferation of horror texts such as the "Supernatural" television series.

The CW network series Supernatural (2005–) draws its text from the horror and fantasy genres as well as religious mythology. Concurrently, it transmits a core “American” mythos. As its protagonists keep watch along a supernatural frontier and eradicate threats to the American way of life, this program both reinforces and alters aspects of the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism by depicting its main characters as representations of America writ large whose mission has grown from an appointment by God to being equals to God. In this manner, Supernatural forwards a new American exceptionalism through the notion that America is exceptional because it is not just divinely appointed by God, but is divine itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a discussion of La Llorona, a female character in Mexican and Chicano folklore who murdered her two children, and examines the existence of the La Llorona character in American novels and television programs. The author comments on the cultural elements of the La Llorona myth and analyzes how interpretations of the legend in American popular culture fail to address its cultural legacy. Examples of the La Llorona character in the television show "Supernatural," the novel "Bruja" by Mel Odom, and the book "The Wailing Wind" by Tony Hillerman are provided.

Eric Kripke"s Supernatural tv-series, aired in the United States from 2005 to the pre-sent day. In a typical study i tried to demonstrate autothematic operations, widely understood executive producers games and how a show's creators use pastiche, irony, grotesque and kitsch. All of these place Supernatural in the whole complex of production belonging to the group of the post-modern. Then I proved that seemingly innocent fantasy story was hiding something more, a deeper message - the myth to modern human beings. Producers transformed, in many ways, functioning in our culture mythological themes. They created a fictional universe which became the basis for the superstructure of meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 28th annual conference for the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, which was held from June 28 to July 1, 2010 at the Meertens Institut in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is presented. Topics include urban legends, racial components of contemporary legends, and the television show "Supernatural." The conference featured several legend researchers including Paul Smith, Patricia A. Turner, and Peter Burger.

This article analyses two television series first screened in 2005: Medium and Supernatural. It argues that, in the context of post-9/11 anxieties about the surveillance and defence of the borders of nation/family, the narrative use of paranormal phenomena offers a new forensic model. While traditional detective narratives rely on empiricist, Enlightenment ways of identifying and defending against the invisible, threatening other-making it visible and hence allaying the fears that it excites-these programs, drawing on the narrative strategies of both the detective story and the Gothic tale, offer a way of knowing the unknown and seeing the unseeable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors analyze the religious themes and portrayals in the television program Supernatural, aired on the CW television network since 2005. As fictional entertainment programming, Supernatural incorporates various religions and lore into its episodes, which feature its protagonists fighting monsters, demons, and the occasional evil human. Findings from a content analysis of 60 episodes from the first 3 seasons illustrate a religious hegemony that forwards Catholicism, in the form of weapons used to fight evil, such as holy water, and depictions of priests, as the main and most powerful opponent of evil. Non-Catholic, “other” religions, and their associated villainous characters, in contrast, serve as distractions for the protagonists, thus contributing even more to their marginal stature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores masculinity, class and the gothic in the television series "Supernatural," created by Eric Kripke. The plot of the show is highlighted. According to Kripke, the series was conceptualized as a way of exploring "urban legends and American folklore" through a narrative that combines some elements of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and George Lucas's "Star Wars" in its use of the quest motif and its characterization of the two blue-collar tough guys, Sam and Dean. The author suggests that the series and Kripke's Boogeyman use the supernatural to gothically tie downward class mobility to the heightened vulnerability of children.