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From the medicalisation of dementia to the politics of memory and identity in three Spanish documentary films: Bicicleta, cullera, poma, Las voces de la memoria and Bucarest: la memòria perduda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2013

RAQUEL MEDINA
RAQUEL MEDINA*
Affiliation:
School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Raquel Medina, School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK. E-mail: r.medina@aston.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper explores how the concept of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is constructed through Spanish media and documentary films and how it is represented. The article analyses three documentary films and the cultural and social contexts in and from which they emerged: Solé's Bucarest: la memòria perduda [Bucharest: Memory Lost] (2007), Bosch's Bicicleta, cullera, poma [Bicycle, Spoon, Apple] (2010) and Fabrá, Peris and Badia's Las voces de la memoria [Memory's Voices] (2011). The three documentary films approach AD from different perspectives, creating well-structured discourses of what AD represents for contemporary Spanish society, from medicalisation of AD to issues of personhood and citizenship. These three films are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective, in an effort to strengthen the links between ageing and dementia studies and cultural studies. Examining documentary film representations of AD from these perspectives enables semiotic analyses beyond the aesthetic perspectives of film studies, and the exploration of the articulation of knowledge and power in discourses about AD in contemporary Spain.

Keywords

Alzheimer's diseasedementiaidentitycitizenshippersonhooddocumentary filmmemorySpanish politics
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 34 , Issue 10 , November 2014 , pp. 1688 - 1710
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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