圖像醫學與失智敘事的跨國重塑

Graphic Medicine and the Transnational Reframing of Dementia Narratives

圖像醫學一詞由醫生兼藝術家威廉斯所提出，結合敘事醫學與漫畫的視覺藝術系統，探討漫畫媒介如何再現身體和情感癥狀。誠如《圖像醫學宣言》的作者們指出，圖像醫學為新興的跨學科研究領域，能夠有效地教育醫護人員，並促進主流醫療實踐更具包容性。實際上，圖像醫學也是跨國的集體行動。本文中在跨國的脈絡之下，藉由分析美國動畫師和電影製作人豪格斯的《大雪》（1999）和《屆齡之際：重訪〈大雪〉》（2020），西班牙漫畫家羅卡的《皺紋》（2007/2016），以及法國的維冶（Valérie Villieu）和薩爾法第（Raphaël Sarfati）的《小約瑟芬：記憶碎片》（2012/2020）四本圖像敘事，探討圖像醫學創作者如何重塑失智敘事。本文認為這些圖像敘事創作者以視覺方式再現失智者的另類現實，以及重構他們碎裂的記憶，藉此與在主流失智想像中遭到邊緣化為「病態」和「失能」之人，建立起獨特的相互依存關係，也創造出諾拉所謂的「記憶場域」，以資彰顯並紀念失智者之人性。

Graphic medicine, a term coined by the physician-artist Ian Williams, describes the combination of“the principles of narrative medicine with an exploration of the visual systems of comic art, interrogating the representation of physical and emotional signs and symptoms within the medium.”As the co-authors of Graphic Medicine Manifesto point out, graphic medicine, as“an emerging area of interdisciplinary study,”can effectively educate healthcare professionals and initiate changes in the dominant healthcare practices to become more inclusive. It is, in fact, a transnational collective project. In this paper, I explore the transnational efforts by graphic storytellers to reframe dementia narratives by focusing on four texts, Heavy Snow: My Father’s Disappearance into Alzheimer’s (1999) and At A Particular Age: Heavy Snow Revisited (2020) by American animator and filmmaker John Haugse, Wrinkles (2007/2016) by Spanish comic artist Paco Roca, and Little Josephine: Memory in Pieces (2012/2020) by Valérie Villieu and Raphaël Sarfati from France. I argue that these artists and authors, through their visual representations of the alternative realities experienced by people with dementia and their reconstruction of fragmented memories, establish a unique bond of interdependent relationality with individuals often marginalized as“diseased”and“disabled”in the dominant dementia imaginary. In doing so, they create textual lieux de mémoire or sites of memory, in Pierre Nora’s term, that honor the humanity of those living with dementia.