Neurodegenerative and Life Narratives: Alzheimer’s Disease Re-considered and Selfhood Re-Negotiated in Dana Walrath’s Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass

Neurodegenerative and Life Narratives: Alzheimer’s Disease Re-considered and Selfhood Re-Negotiated in Dana Walrath’s Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass

黛娜・沃瑞斯（Dana Walrath） 2016年出版的醫療圖像自傳《愛麗絲海默夢遊仙境：阿茲海默症鏡中奇遇》（Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass）不落俗套地重新探究照護者與病患共同面對阿茲海默症威脅時的持續性自我認同之狀態演變。此圖文並呈之醫療圖像回憶錄編織了一洞察力豐富的敘事三重奏，涵容了達娜・沃瑞斯的照護倫理、罹患失智症母親與其不可逆神經性退化疾病協商下自我認同之展現，以及他們如何與生活中無所不在的失智症照護日常。本文首先爬梳美國在近幾十年的新自由主義與自由經濟邏輯的社會脈絡下，失智症，特別是阿茲海默氏症，如何被建構與形塑成一獨特疾病樣貌：罹患失智症病人的生活常態如何被偏誤地理解為沃瑞斯所稱之「社會性死亡」（“Social death＂）。而身處在此框架內，達娜・沃瑞斯的作品如何透過圖像醫療敘事的媒介，另闢蹊徑，為當代失智症論述提供多元化的策略詮釋。其次，本文透過多元疾病敘事之理論基礎及視角，探討作品中的圖像敘事策略結合非線性時間與非同時同步性記憶等概念，進行照護者與患者之間自我認同感重塑之文本分析與再詮釋。最後，論文探究本書優勢本位取徑（Strength-Based Approach）做為敘事策略，與較強調疾病無能為力面向的失智症敘事傳統做出區隔，開展另類的失智症與照護議題相關生命書寫之正向性。黛娜・沃瑞斯兼具作家、藝術創作者、醫學院教授及醫療人類學學者的多重身份，透過《愛麗絲海默夢遊仙境：阿茲海默症鏡中奇遇》展現人類在面對不可逆神經性退化疾病之關鍵時刻，依然能有不同凡響的生命美學態度。

In her 2016 medical graphic memoir, Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass, Dana Walrath presents a compelling exploration of the sustained identities of both caregiver and patient as they grapple with Alzheimer’s disease. This graphic memoir weaves a profound and insightful narrative trio involving Dana Walrath as the caregiver, her mother Alice’s daily personal experiences with her neurodegenerative self, and the ubiquitous presence of Alzheimer’s disease. This study initially examines the social context of neoliberalism and market economy logic in the United States over recent decades, exploring how this context has shaped the unique manifestation of dementia, specifically Alzheimer's disease, and how patients afflicted with dementia have been erroneously perceived as in a state of “social death.” Within this framework, the research scrutinizes how Dana Walrath’s Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass, through the medium of graphic medical narrative, forges an innovative path in dementia discourse. Subsequently, through a diversity of narrativity theories and perspectives, the article analyzes how the narrative strategies adopted by the graphic memoir integrate concepts such as non-linear narration and desynchronized memory. These approaches contribute to the reinterpretation and textual analysis of the reconfiguration of self-identity between caregivers and patients. Finally, the paper explores how the author differentiates her narrative strategies, which adopt a strengths-based approach, from the dominant narratives about dementia that emphasize the debilitating aspects of dementia. This approach forges the development of an alternative, positive, and inspirational approach to writing about dementia and caregiving. Dana Walrath as the author, in her multifaceted roles as a writer, artist, medical professor, and medical anthropologist, demonstrates through her work Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass a distinct aesthetic attitude towards life when faced with irreversible neurodegenerative diseases.