Illustrating Death in Caitlin Doughty’s Creative Nonfiction: 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 and 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠?
Illustrating Death in Caitlin Doughty’s Creative Nonfiction: 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 and 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠?

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of illustrations is to enhance the reading experience, improve the text, and add another layer of representation. In death-acceptance literature, such as Caitlin Doughty’s creative nonfiction books 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐸𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 and 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑀𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑦 𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠?, illustrations portray the highly sensitive topic of death. Landis Blair and Dianné Ruz, the illustrators whose works complete the two books, create a multimodal text with the help of literal and conceptual illustrations. This article aims at analysing the use and structure of these illustrations in the context of multimodality and death acceptance. In addition, the paper also contains two interviews that are meant to offer the perspective of the two illustrators on their own work and on illustrating death in nonfiction.

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