Photography, Intermediality, and Graphic Illness Narratives

In this chapter, I adopt an intermedial approach to examine the use of photography in several graphic illness narratives. I begin by tracing how the mixing of photography and cartooning introduces a dynamic interplay between the lived experience of illness and broad historical and technological contexts that intersect with that lived experience. Through close readings of several graphic illness narratives, I reach the conclusion that the use of photography in graphic illness narratives raises for consideration how knowledge of illness exists within an intermedial discursive network that also informs one’s personal experience of illness.