Reimena Yee (in conversation with Dr Leslie Wong) – Becoming A Death Doula for the Alexander Romance

As a chronicle of one of history’s greatest conquerors, the Alexander Romance’s travels across time and space exceed even that of its much-storied subject. In her webcomic Alexander, the Servant & the Water of Life, however, Malaysian-Australian artist Reimena Yee ventures to ask if the contemporary world still needs a storytelling tradition that romanticises an imperial vision of conquest and bloodshed. Mustering a dizzying array of illustration styles to match the Romance’s diffusion to both ends of Eurasia and beyond, the webcomic depicts a chameleonic Alexander whose quest for immortality increasingly resembles a one-way trip into the afterlife. Yee, whose work on the webcomic is ongoing, will speak about why she considers herself a death doula for
the Romance, which moments in the webcomic were inspired by her Malaysian upbringing and what she makes of the classical tradition’s language of inheritance. There will also be opportunities to learn more about Yee’s extensive research process and previous collaboration with the British Library.