The poetics and politics of alzheimer's disease life-writing

Author(s)

    • Zimmermann, Martina (Researcher in health humanities)

Bibliographic Information

The poetics and politics of alzheimer's disease life-writing

Martina Zimmermann

(Palgrave studies in literature, science and medicine)(Palgrave pivot)

Palgrave Macmillan, c2017

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

"Bibliography of dementia narratives": p. 133-139

Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-155) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This is the first book-length exploration of the thoughts and experiences expressed by dementia patients in published narratives over the last thirty years. It contrasts third-person caregiver and first-person patient accounts from different languages and a range of media, focusing on the poetical and political questions these narratives raise: what images do narrators appropriate; what narrative plot do they adapt; and how do they draw on established strategies of life-writing. It also analyses how these accounts engage with the culturally dominant Alzheimer's narrative that centres on dependence and vulnerability, and addresses how they relate to discourses of gender and aging. Linking literary scholarship to the medico-scientific understanding of dementia as a neurodegenerative condition, this book argues that, first, patients' articulations must be made central to dementia discourse; and second, committed alleviation of caregiver burden through social support systems and altered healthcare policies requires significantly altered views about aging, dementia, and Alzheimer's patients.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Critically Reading Dementia Narratives: Amplifying Advocacy.- Chapter 1: Of Wives and Daughters: The Stereotype of Caring Females?.- Chapter 2: From a "Care-Free" Distance: Sons Talking About Cultural Concepts.- Chapter 3: About Tradition and Triumph: Patients Popularise Dementia Narrative.- Chapter 4: On Reclaiming Authority: The Enabling Discourse of Alzheimer's Disease.- Conclusion: Dementia Narratives - Shifter of Perspectives and Values.- Bibliography.- Works Cited.- Index.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-2 of 2

Details

Page Top