Representações visuais da morte na edição de livros em Portugal. Estudo exploratório sobre as emoções veiculadas

In the last decade, an increasingly intense competition for readers and space/time in bookstores has forced the book market to invest in appearance. This is strongly reflected in book covers whose design has gained great importance due to the fact that they aim to appeal to emotions (an important motivating tool for the purchaser). The multiple works on disease and death that have been published in recent years in Portugal do not escape this trend. In this context, an analysis is made of differences and similarities in the visual representation of death on the covers of these books, taking into account several parameters, such as: gender, age, specific diseases, authors and type of publishers. through this analysis the characteristics of the covers will be identified and their intended message deciphered in order to understand how these book covers demonstrate the cultural conceptions and emotions that surround the subject of death.