Forgotten: narratives of age-related dementia and alzheimer#x92;s disease in canada

Since the 1860s, long before scientists put a name to Alzheimer?s disease, Canadian authors have been writing about age-related dementia. Originally, most of these stories were elegies, designed to offer readers consolation. Over time they evolved into narratives of gothic horror in which the illness is presented not as a normal consequence of aging but as an apocalyptic transformation. Weaving together scientific, cultural, and aesthetic depictions of dementia and Alzheimer?s disease, Forgotten asserts that the only crisis associated with Canada?s aging population is one of misunderstanding. Revealing that turning illness into something monstrous can have dangerous consequences, Marlene Goldman seeks to identify the political and social influences that have led to the gothic disease model and its effects on society. Examining the works of authors such as Alice Munro, Michael Ignatieff, Jane Rule, and Caroline Adderson alongside news stories and medical and historical discussions of Alzheimer?s disease, Goldman provides an alternative, person-centred perspective to the experiences of aging and age-related dementia. Deconstructing the myths that have transformed cognitive decline into a corrosive fantasy, Forgotten establishes the pivotal role that fictional and non-fictional narratives play in cultural interpretations of disease. Cover Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Why Apocalypse Now? 1 A Forgotten History: The Late-Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-Century Construction of the Disease Concept 2 The Rise of the Asylum in Ontario and Its Impact on Canadian Families 3 Popular Perceptions of Agingand Dementia in Canada: The Theory of Waste and Repair from the 1860s to the 1960s 4 From Psychological and Stress-Based Theories of Dementia to the Triumph of the Biomedical Paradigm 5 A Narrative View of Deinstitutionalization: Alice Munro’s “Powers” 6 A Tale of Two Brothers: Andrew Ignatieff and the Rise of the Alzheimer Society of Canada 7 Gothic and Apocalyptic Horror: Michael Ignatieff’s Scar Tissue 8 A History of Forgetting: Cognitive Decline and Historical Cycles of Degeneration 9 Unburying the Living in Jane Rule’s Memory Board and Selected Stories by Alice Munro Conclusion From the Gothic to Brecht’s Epic Theatre Notes Appendix Works on Dementia in Canada Bibliography Index A groundbreaking comparison of scientific, popular, and literary approaches to provoke new stories of dementia.