Tanya Krzywinska

Tanya started playing computer-based games on 'Usenet' when working at the Digital Equipment Corporation while doing her Masters in film. Several years later, after completing her PhD and teaching film and media, she realised that there was very little academic writing about video games and decided to remedy that. She gave her earliest paper on horror games at one of the first ever academic conferences on games in 2000 and, soon after, edited with Geoff King the first collection of essays to be devoted to the study of the relationship between games and cinema.

Since then, she has focused her attention mainly on games, with a particular interest in their formal properties, graphical styles and ‘world creation'. She has, however, maintained her enthusiasm for the gothic and horror generally across various media. Tanya divides her time between Cornwall, where she lives in a Gothic monstrosity with bats in the belfry, and Brunel. She is also an author-illustrator and is currently working on a graphical novel.

Research Overview

Tanya cut her academic teeth with her work on film, focusing often on issues around the imaginary, desire and fantasy. After publishing a number of books and papers on cinema and television, she became convinced that her long-standing interest in videogames should have a place in an academic context. As such she has become one of the pioneers of the study of videogames and has worked to establish an international network for researchers working with games, becoming President of DIGRA in 2006.

Tanya is the author of several books and numerous articles on film and games, including A Skin for Dancing In: Possession, Witchcraft and Voodoo in Film(Flicks Books, 2000), Sex and the Cinema (Wallflower, 2006), co-author with Geoff King of Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders: Videogames Forms and Contexts (IB Tauris, 2006), and co-editor of ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces (Wallflower, 2002), videogame/player/text (MUP, 2006) and Ringbearers: The Lord of the Rings Online as Intertextual Narrative (MUP 2011). She also guest edited an edition of Games and Culture (Sage) devoted to the analysis of World of Warcraft (2006). She has been President of DiGRA, The Digital Games Research Association (www.digra.org), and is on the editorial board of journals Slayage, Game Studies, Games and Simulation, Games and Culture and Horror Studies. She is currently working on a number of projects related to the Gothic in games.

Teaching Activity

Tanya convenes the Masters programme in Digital Games as well as the PhD programme in games (www.gamesatbrunel). Her specialism lies in teaching analytic approaches to the formal properties and pleasures of video games. In addition, she teaches critical theory and visual communication on the BA Games Design.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2006) Krzywinska, T., Blood scythes, festivals, quests and backstories: World creation and rhetorics of myth in world of warcraft, Games and Culture 1 (4) : 383- 396

(Accepted) Krzywinska, T., Demon Girl Power: Regimes of Form and Force in videogames Primal and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, University of Aberty Press

Book Chapters

(2012) Krzywinska, T., The Strange Case of the Misappearance of Sex in Videogames. In: Fromme, J. and Unger, A. eds. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Springer 143- 160

(2010) Krzywinska, T. and Brown, D., Following in the Footsteps of Fellowship: A Tale of There and Back Again text/translation/tolkienisation. In: Krzywinska, T., MaCallum-Stewart, E. and Parsler, J. eds. Ringbearers: Lord of the Rings Online. Manchester university Press

(2009) Krzywinska, T., The Ludic paradox of Call of Cthulhu: dark corners of the earth. In: The Horror Game Reader. McGraw-Hill

(2009) Krzywinska, T., 'Movie-games and game-movies' towards an aesthetics of transmediality. In: Film Theory and Contemporary Movies. Routledge/AFI

(2009) Krzywinska, T. and MacCallum-Stewart, E., Digital games. In: Bould. ed. The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Routledge

(2008) Krzywinska, T., Arachne V Minerva: the spinning out of long narrative in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and World of Warcraft. In: Harrigan, P. and Wardrip-Fruin, N. eds. Third Person. MIT Press

(2008) Krzywinska, T., World of warcraft as rich text. In: Corneillson, H. and Walker, J. eds. Worlds of Warcraft: A World of Warcraft Reader. MIT Press

(2008) Krzywinska, T., Zombies in gamespace: form, context, and meaning in zombie-based videogames. In: McIntosh, S. and Leverette, M. eds. Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead. Scarecrow Press 153- 168

(2002) Kleinberg, T., Hands-on horror. In: King, G. and Krzywinska, T. eds. Screenplay: cinema/videogames/interfaces. London: Wallflower 206- 223

Books

(2008) Krzywinska, T., Videogame/player/text. MUP

(2006) Krzywinska, T. and King, G., Tomb raiders and space invaders: videogame forms and contexts. London: I.B. Tauris

(2006) Krzywinska, T., Sex and the cinema. London: Wallflower

(2002) Krzywinska, T., ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces. Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press

(2000) Krzywinska, T., A Skin for Dancing In: Witchcraft, Possession and Voodoo in Film. Flicks Books

(2000) Krzywinska, T., Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace. (Wallflower Press