Christina Fawcett
Title: Contract Faculty, Department of English, University of Winnipeg
Email: c.fawcett@uwinnipeg.ca
Degrees:
- PhD in English Literature (University of Glasgow)
- MA in English (University of Manitoba)
- BA Hons in English & Political Studies (University of Manitoba)
Biography:
After completing my undergraduate in English and Political Studies and my M.A. in English with a focus on post-structural linguistics in J.R.R. Tolkien, my Ph.D. moved into the historical and political conceptions of monsters in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Tolkien created a myth structure that drew on folk and fairy tales from across historical Europe; as he drew in moral and cultural texts across eras to his own worldbuilding, he leaned heavily on the magic and mythic stories that developed into Children’s Literature. So, while I began life as a medievalist and fantasy scholar, I found myself drawn further and further into young people’s texts and the powerful cultural markers they provide.
My study of monsters has branched beyond the medievalist twentieth century fantasts; genre texts in fantasy, speculative fiction, science fiction and horror all articulate interesting spaces for monstrosity. Modern genre writings in young adult literature have provided some of the most interesting conceptions of monstrosity, as the articulation of anxieties for young readers often take crystalline and succinct forms. The study of young people’s texts and spaces has dovetailed nicely with my other field of research: participatory digital media. Video games have traditionally been framed and sold to young people, despite a widening range of players. More narrative-based games are being focused on and for young audiences, engaging the power of play, participation and emotional investment.
Current Projects:
From Deep Ocean to Dark Forest
A collaboration with Dr. Heather Snell on the articulations of monstrous nature in Twenty-first Century North American YA Literature. Examining select literary and new media texts, this project will consider the increasing complexity of the relationship between humanity and the land. The different landscapes situate the protagonists among different challenges and threats, and open dialogues on ecosickness, affect, accessibility and monstrosity.
Reading the Taboo in the Arts
An edited collection in collaboration with Dr. Marc Ouellette and Dr. Delores Phillips that will open to critical examination the uncomfortable or silenced spaces of sexual taboo and the cultural products that represent the taboo. Through representing taboo, many texts across media challenge the language of deviancy surrounding non-normative sexual desire. Many forms of taboo and sexual deviancy centre around the sexual pursuit of, or sexuality of, children. The essays will focus on reading the cultural import of these works.
Publications:
- McGreevy, Alan, Christina Fawcett, and Marc Ouellette. “The House and the Infected Body: the Metonomy of Resident Evil 7. Disease in Digital Games: Theories, Topics, Analyses, edited by Arno Görgen and Stefan H. Simond, Transcript Press. Accepted; in process.
- Fawcett, Christina and Heather Snell. “Character, Codes, and Context: Emotional Performance in Sherri Smith’s Orleans and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give.” Moving Stories: Emotion in, through, and around Texts for Children and Young Adults, edited by Karen Coats and Gretchen Papazian. Accepted; in process.
- Fawcett, Christina and Alan McGreevy. “Resident Evil and Infectious Fear.” The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay, edited by Peter Zackariasson and Stephen Webley, Routledge Advances in Game Studies, Routledge, 2019.
- Fawcett, Christina. “Video Games and Emotional Interaction: thatgamecompany and Non-Narrative Gaming.” Reconstructions. Publication forthcoming.
- Fawcett, Christina. “American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns and Traumatic Memory.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 49, no.3, 2016, pp. 492-521.
- Fawcett, Christina. “Battle of Wits, Battle of Words: Riddles in The Hobbit.” The Hobbit and History. Turner Publishing, 2014. pp. 103-19.