Abstract

Should the deprivation of the capacity to develop new stories or remember the existing ones render a person devoid of any claim to identity? Challenging the general perceptions that a person having Alzheimer’s disease eventually becomes incapable of developing or retaining a distinct self, in this paper I will be examining Lisa Genova’s novel Still Alice (2007) and arguing why there is a need to move beyond the simplistic categorization of Alzheimer’s patients as ‘initial victims’ and their caregivers as ‘other victims’. By rendering the invisible section of caregivers and patient visible along with attempts to map their journeys beyond the parameters of language, my study will problematize the idea of personhood. Unlike the contemporary metaphors employed in regard to Alzheimer’s disease which often conveys the sense of doom, fear and sometimes, as ticking of time bomb, my study will resist such negative associations and put forward an empathetic understanding necessary for recognition of identities that people form at different stages of their lives.