"Sometimers, Alzheimer's? I love that! That's definitely me": Readers' Responses to Fictional Dementia Narratives.

ABSTRACT: This article presents findings from an interdisciplinary project which invited readers to experience the impact of dementia via fictional characters' narratives. Combining methods from critical gerontology and literary linguistics-a field that examines the language of literature-we undertook an empirical reader response study of dementia fiction. We constructed a large corpus of dementia fiction; selecting 12 extracts, each containing first-hand, focalized accounts of fictional characters' experiences of living with dementia. Readers (31) were purposively sampled for 4 separate reading groups-student social workers (9); general public (9); family carers (6); and people with dementia (7). Over 6 weeks they engaged in separate, facilitated, on-line group discussions of extracts. Discussions

SUBMITTER: Carney GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10724039 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature