ERIC Number: EJ870362
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1542-7587
EISSN: N/A
Scripting Selves, Stalling Last Shadows: (Auto) Biographical Writing of Alzheimer Patients and Their Caregivers
Ramanathan, Vaidehi
Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, v6 n4 p292-314 2009
This article offers a critical discussion of notions of self as they emerge in the diaries kept by Alzheimer patients and their caregivers. It explores ways in which diary writing becomes simultaneously an agentive way by which a sense of "self" gets scripted since memory is fast slipping away, while also pointing to the fluid nature of identities as patients struggle with diminishing language and remembering skills. Specifically, the article explores how two themes, 1) repetition and (sure) signs and 2) traces and intentions, crucially inform their need to text their elusive hold on language and memories into place. The entries make us take note of how in contexts of disabilities and chronic ailments texting, and to some extent, fixing, a sense of self may be a critical way of surviving and coping and stalling last shadows. (Contains 7 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Caregivers, Patients, Diaries, Alzheimers Disease, Memory, Intention, Disabilities, Self Concept, Coping, Dementia, Autobiographies, Short Term Memory
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A