Revising the Dementia Imaginary: Disability and Age-Studies Perspectives on Graphic Narratives of Dementia

This chapter illustrates the potential for productive cross-fertilization of age studies and disability studies, particularly in dialogue about dementia. In the dominant dementia imaginary of the United States, dementia is medicalized and represents a loss of selfhood and the degeneration of mental and bodily functions and dignity. We focus on several graphic narratives featuring dementia—most notably Paco Roca’s Wrinkles (2016), Dana Walrath’s Aliceheimer’s (2016), and Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits (2010)—and argue that these graphic texts work as counternarratives to the prevailing dementia imaginary and can beneficially shape readers’ interpretive practices when interacting with people with dementia. Drawing on work in age studies, disability studies, and graphic medicine, we develop three key concepts through which these dementia counternarratives work. The first is encouraging a mindset of presuming competence of people living with dementia. The second is an active, intersubjective process of co-constructing narrative identity with people with dementia. The third describes a reflective pause which we call the beat that creates space for better understanding and adapting social practices around dementia. The combined insights of age studies and disability studies suggest interpretive readings that can engender new modalities of care, communication, adaptation, and interdependence to improve the lived realities of dementia and dementia caregiving.