Abstract
Research identifies the value of rites of passage in helping individuals navigate transitional experiences. Research, however, also highlights the decline of importance assigned to formal community-driven ritual in much of contemporary Western culture. My study explores the illustrated fantasy narrative as potential facilitator for rites of passage; specifically, how illustrated fictional worlds may act as ritual spaces. This notion is explored within multimodal analyses of the illustrated books The Ship that Sailed to Mars (1923) by William M. Timlin, and Lost Forest (2018) by Alexandra Dvornikova. What is uncovered within the literature review and the analyses of the selected texts, is then further explored, within a research-led practical body of work, which takes the form an illustrated book and an exhibition, both titled ‘between worlds’. Through analysis and practice, the process of developing illustrated fantasy worlds is explored with the purpose of uncovering how to construct believable fictional worlds that may function as ritual spaces. And how these ritual spaces may help readers make sense of transitional experiences.
M.A. (Design)