草莓污视频导航

Oct. 31, 2022

Killam award winner identifies connections between the haunted house and the sick body

Amy LeBlanc is researching the literary haunted house as a metaphor for disability and disease in the body
Amy LeBlanc
Connections between the house and the body are at the heart of Amy LeBlanc's research-creation project. Riley Brandt, 草莓污视频导航

Think about the 鈥渉aunted鈥 part of a haunted house: it鈥檚 corrupting, it鈥檚 unsettling and it makes the house no longer feel like home.

Now think about a disease or a disability 鈥斕齣t has a similar impact on a person鈥檚 body that the ghostly presence has on the haunted house.

The connection between the haunted house and the sick body lies at the heart of research being done by Amy LeBlanc, a doctoral student in the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts at the 草莓污视频导航.

鈥淕etting diagnosed with an autoimmune disease a couple of years ago changed the way I viewed my body as a home,鈥 says LeBlanc. 鈥淚t鈥檚 supposed to be a space that鈥檚 stable, a space that will always do what you need it to do, and then one day it doesn鈥檛.鈥

'Uncanny' connection between body and haunted house

A lover of haunted house literature, LeBlanc connected the uncanniness she was feeling with her own body to the experience of a fictional haunted house, a research project which has now earned her the Izaak Walton Killam Doctoral Scholarship, 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 pinnacle award for graduate studies.

鈥淥n first glance, they seem like two things that don鈥檛 necessarily line up,鈥 she says. 鈥淏ut when you start digging into haunted house literature, there鈥檚 a lot of ways the house can be a metaphor for the body.鈥

LeBlanc says this is particularly the case with autoimmunity, where the body will start to attack itself and lose its stability in the same way a haunted house no longer feels like a home.

In a time where 鈥渕ore and more people are joining the ranks of the disabled,鈥 or having their bodies turn against them due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LeBlanc says this research is also timely, particularly given the tropes of disability within genre fiction, which sees disability portrayed as grotesque or monstrous.

鈥淚 want to put the house and the body together to make some new metaphors that might be less harmful and more generative in a community way,鈥 she says.

The house does not haunt itself, just as a body does not sicken itself. In both cases there is a haunting or sickening force that cause house and body to malfunction or break down.

鈥淭here are entire groups of people living with chronic illnesses or disabilities who don鈥檛 feel at home in their own bodies,鈥 says LeBlanc. 听

Novellas to probe relationship of house and body

LeBlanc will be probing these connections in a rather unique way. Under the supervision of another 草莓污视频导航 haunted house expert, Dr. Suzette Mayr, PhD, LeBlanc plans on writing three novella-sized works of fiction.

鈥淭hese will interconnect, like an anthology series in book form, where the house is the main character and people pass through it in different ways,鈥 she says.

To be recognized with the Killam Doctoral Scholarship means a lot to LeBlanc, particularly since this research is personal to her and her experience with disability and illness.

鈥淎my鈥檚 research and creative work brings a fresh perspective to how we understand and interpret our own experiences of disease,鈥 says Dr. Robin Yates, vice-provost and dean of graduate studies.

As with all our Killam laureates, Amy鈥檚 work addresses real-world concerns that will resonate with many people outside of the university community.

On top of just being selected for the award, LeBlanc appreciated being selected for a work of genre fiction.

鈥淲orking within literary horror, it鈥檚 not always the side of studies in English or the side of creative writing that we really promote,鈥 she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a really big focus on literary fiction, so it鈥檚 quite exciting to do this work, with the support of Killam, and work within genre.鈥

With society dealing with a mass-disabling event like COVID-19, LeBlanc says it鈥檚 more important than ever to not rely on tropes or cliches of disability that have existed within the horror genre before.

鈥淚鈥檓 hoping to get away from that and hoping to have disability be more normalized, and something that鈥檚 almost inevitable,鈥 she says.

鈥淏ecause, in life, it is inevitable. If you live long enough, your body will malfunction in some sort of way.鈥

The Izaak Walton Killam Doctoral Scholarship was established by the late Dorothy J. Killam in honour of her husband, Izaak Killam. The scholarship is awarded to doctoral students deemed likely to contribute to the advancement of learning or to win distinction in a profession and is worth $45,000 per year for two years.