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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Concluding narratives of a career with dementia
— accounts of Iris Murdoch at her death | | Author(s) | Gillian McColgan, James Valentine, Murna Downs |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 20, part 1, January 2000 |
| Pages | pp 97-110 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Personality ; Life span ; Death ; Biographies. |
| Annotation | Obituaries and other accounts of well-known people at their death offer a narrative defining identity through the life story. The authors look at a case where the dementia of a famous author figures in the tributes at her death. The predominant narrative of dementia has until recently been that of a tragic loss of self, and has reinforced an image of social death. Biomedical determinism has similarly focused on the disease, rather than seeing the person and allowing his or her voice to be heard. Iris Murdoch may not have wanted tributes to tell her story; but these have enabled us to examine conventional narratives of a person with dementia. The "career" of the person with dementia is charted, and his or her perceived transformation of identity is defined in terms of being demented rather than with dementia. Bad and good are attributed to aspects of Iris Murdoch's life through a repertoire of available stereotypes. These appear to involve the retrospective application of characteristics of dementia, along with those of goodness and purity. Common gender representations relating to Iris Murdoch's married life and the caring situation are interwoven in the accounts. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000307205 A |
| Classmark | EA: DK: BG6: CW: 67 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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