“You Can’t Combat Nothing”

Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half and Reframing Mental Illness Through Webcomics

In late October 2011, Allie Brosh disappeared. For nearly two years, the writer, blogger, and cartoonist enjoyed public recognition as the creator of the webcomic Hyperbole and a Half, which first appeared on Google’s free Blogspot platform in 2009. [1] Gaining cult-like status amongst young adults online, at the height of its popularity in 2010, the blog averaged 200,000 views and between 1,000 and 2,500 comments per post.

Sarah Kane’s World of Depression

The Emergence and Experience of Mental Illness in 4.48 Psychosis

British playwright Sarah Kane (1971–1999) described her last works of fiction as “texts for performance”[2]. In them, she moved towards a form of expression in which the materiality of the text, language and (inter)textuality had more and more significance over events and plot. This development reaches its peak in her last play, 4.48 Psychosis,[3] which focuses on the experiences of a person who suffers from psychotic depression[4]. The narrating I constructed in the play cites feelings of overwhelming sadness, […]