NFSS: Marlene Goldman

Marlene Goldman argues that novelists, poets, and dramatists play a profound role in any period’s understandings of illness and disease. In the case of late-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, language—specifically, clusters of familiar metaphors and literary genres such as tragedy and the Gothic—constitutes the central medium for the ongoing interplay between biology and culture. The idea that fiction more than medicine is responsible for shaping our concepts of disease is central to her recent book, Forgotten: Age-Related Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease in Canada. Her training in literary studies enables her to step back from authoritative and popular narratives about aging and age-related diseases to consider how they are narratively constructed and whose interests they serve. In her talk, she will explore the profound relationship between literature and gerontology. She will also screen her own short film “Piano Lessons” based on Alice Munro’s story “In Sight of the Lake.” Ultimately, she argues that the humanities play an important role in both entrenching and challenging ageist conceptions of both old age and age-related illnesses.