Beyond the Great Forgetting: Narrative Resistance in American Literature on Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (1st ed. 2022)

By: Patrick Gruener

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Drawing on a selection of carefully curated autobiographical and fictional portrayals of the dementia experience, this book gives voice to some of the most pressing ethical issues that commonly arise in the context of a dementing disorder, and calls attention to various forms of narrative resistance in contemporary American literature on early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Based on the premise that the current public discourse on AD is largely dominated by an anxiety and fear-promoting conception of the illness, this multilayered inquiry strives to look beyond the widespread horrors of forgetting and loss in AD, and, in doing so, attempts to give a better, more accurate, and more balanced impression of what it means to be living with such a diagnosis.