ENGLISH departments at universities, like schoolteachers, have always had their old favourites -Wordsworth, Plath, Shakespeare, Donne.

But at Adelaide University, someone rather different is proving popular. Her name is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

First-year English students are taking the gothic literature option to ponder the US teen angst allegory, which has been described as "true myth" - where fantasy is separate from reality - as opposed to the faux myth X Files.

Many prefer to study the philosophies behind the world's most famous vampire hunter ahead of some of the greatest poets.

Students can take an elective in gothic literature or in metaphysical and roman- tic poetry. In the first semester this year, Buffy well and truly slayed Wordsworth

and "co, with 225 of the 304 studerts going for the gothic option. Buffy forms the TV component of the English studies in gothic literature.

Students cast a critical eye on Buffy Anne Summers (actor Sarah Michelle Gellar) and friends for a better under- standing of gothic conventions through their portrayal in contemporary popular culture.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set in fictional Sunnydale, an ordinary town apart from the fact that it is inconveni- ently sited atop the mouth of hell.

Adelaide University English lecturer Catherine Driscoll believes incorporating pop culture into established genres gives relevance to studerts' learning.

"Prior to Buffy's inclusion in the gothic literature syllabus, The X Files was the contemporary TV study available to first- year students, so bringing popular culture into the study of a genre that is centuries old is nothing new," Driscoll says. "It has in the past been dismissed as not being worth studying.

"However, I think today, if you were to ask academics in English departments around the country, the vast majority would say that teaching contemporary popular culture is a great way of adding to classroom discussion."

She says most criticism comes from outside universities. Literature departments arose at the beginning of the 20th century, says Driscoll, and one of the aims was the study of contemporary culture.

"So there are long historical reasons why people should support Its study."

She believes the character of Buffy is a classic gothic creation and makes for a useful contemporary case study of the genre "The show meshes contemporary high school dramas with vampires, monsters and a classic gothic heroine

"For example, in order for a male to be part of Buffy's group, they have to be in some way disempowered," says Driscoll

"Be it a chip in their head preventing them from harming humans or because they have got a soul, which means they can't kill people whatever it is, this disempowerment of the male is really important to the narrative

"It's a gothic convention that the girl - and what she knows and doesn't know - will be at the centre of the text."

The show also cleverly deals with the gothic concept that the line between good and evil is not clearly defined, she says

"Ethics and philosophy are addressed in away that you wouldn't expect from a teen drama.

"It doesn't treat good and evil as two totally distinct entities, they're treated with a lot of ambivalence. "Some of Buffy's actions are downright wrong, but that just serves to reinforce the absence of absolute ethical positions

And that's something that exists in many gothic texts, such as Dracula and Northanger Abbey

"Last year in my honours class we looked at Buffy as an example of feminine adolescence in popular culture

"This year we studied the show in terms of its relationship with modernism; next year we'll be comparing Buffy with a Jane Austen text."

First year arts-science student Sarah Flavel liked the idea of taking a more contemporary look at hterature

"Watching Buffy you can see how the ideas pioneered centuries ago in gothic literature have found their way into popular culture: she says