Biography
Abel Fenwick is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas and winner of the Martin Holloway prize. Her interests include the interplay of psychology, history, and masculinity in film and literature. Recent publications include chapters on televisual responses to the #MeToo movement for Palgrave MacMillan and historicising rhetoric used against the Quileute tribe throughout Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga. A keen interest in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove tetralogy has led her to present papers on foodscapes in McMurtry’s depiction of Texas, as well as organising a conference celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the novel in conjunction with Southern Methodist University.
Qualifications
M.A. in English, University of Arkansas, December 2025.
Thesis: “Want Me to Investigate the Kennedy Assassination While I’m At It?”: Necropolitics and the Nation in American Western Cinema. Supervised by Professor Kay Yandell.
B.A. in English, Royal Holloway University of London, May 2021. 1st Class hons.
Dissertation: ‘Binding the Wound’: A Trauma Theory Reading of Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. Supervised by Professor Sophie Gilmartin.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
2024
‘Masculinity, #Metoo and Misleading Marketing: The Unmet Sexpectations of the American Gigolo Remake.’ Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 13, Adaptations, Reboots and Remakes in Popular Culture, pp. 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc_00099_1
2023
‘Dazzled by Brass and Scarlet: The Role of the Redcoat in 19th Century British Literature.’ Clothing Cultures vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1386/cc_00070_1.
Book Chapters
2025
‘Blonde Bimbo Girls: Barbie’s Legacy on the Material Culture of Plastic Surgery’. The Barbie Phenomenon, Volume 2: Icon, Brand, Celebrity and Fandom. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003611523
2025
‘Exploitation, Legislation and Unmet Expectations – The Complex Legacy of Law and Order SVU’. Communication, Entertainment, and Messages of Social Justice. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003493952
2025
‘Exploited Reservations, Ongoing Subjugation and Indigenous Historicisation: The Whitewashing of Washington State in the Twilight Novels’. The Vampire States of America: The Undead and the Making of the USA in the 21st-Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 17-29. Lead article. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283546
2024
‘“I Just Wanted to Preserve It Just as It is”: Gothic Nostalgia in The Watcher’ in Gothic Nostalgia: The Uses of Toxic Memory in 21st Century Popular Culture, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 145-158.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43852-3
2024
‘“I don’t disagree that there’s evil in the world. I do disagree that we’re powerless against it”: Faith, Feeling and “Fleshy” Desires in HBO’s Oz’ in A Force of Habit: Nuns in Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc, pp. 140-153.
Media and Book Reviews
2025
“Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry Review.” Western American Literature: A Journal of Literary, Cultural, and Place Studies,vol. 59, no. 4.
2025
‘“If I Hurt You, I Can’t Help It”: Brutality and Humanity in The Homesman (dir. Tommy Lee Jones, 2014).’ Middle West Review, vol. 11, no. 2.
https://doi.org/10.1353/mwr.2025.a961086
Manuscripts in Submission
In Press
““Virtue Isn’t Virtue Unless It Slams Up Against Vice” – Living Faith in the Works of Tom Fontana” in Religion, Popular Culture, and the Nineties. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
In Press
“I Thought You Weren’t Going to Become a Man like your Father” – Modernity, Masculinity and Paternal Legacy in the Aftermath of The Godfather (1972)” in The Many Manifestations of the Godfather Series. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
In Press
“You Killed the Buffalo. So the Burrowers Found Other Food”: Ecocriticism, Social Justice, and Stereotypes in Western Creature Features” in New Perspectives on Creature Features. Bristol: Peter Lang Publishing.
Links to Profiles
Google Scholar: Abel F. Fenwick
Google Scholar Address: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MdALanYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Orcid ID: 0009-0007-1330-1733
Orcid Address: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1330-1733