Question

1. Write two question from the article of "The living dead? The construction of people with Alzheimer’s disease as zombies" by SUSAN M. BEHUNIAK.

2. Write two highlights what you learn from the article and what is most important thing in this article "The living dead? The construction of people with Alzheimer’s disease as zombies" by SUSAN M. BEHUNIAK.

Answer 1

A. 1.What are the three aspects of zombie trope that had been directly applied to the people of alzheimeres disease?

    2.Compare and the characterstics overlap between the zombies and persons with alzheimeres disease?

B. The social construction of people with AD as zombies is a destructive representation of AD because it invites and supports the oppression of human beings by encouraging fear and disgust.

    I don’t pretend that we can eliminate the fear of dementia. We are human, after all. We can, though, learn to feel more than fear. We can learn to feel and act with respect and compassion and to believe in purpose for those with dementia and those who love and care for them.

   An inherent difference between zombies and people with AD is that Romero’s zombies are autonomous creatures while people with AD are dependent human beings. In fact, what makes zombies capable of their grotesque actions is what Fine and Glendinning (2005: 615) called a ‘ relational autonomy’ that is so exaggerated that they feel nothing for anyone. Zombies are not only independent but also totally lack any sort of human connection and human emotion – illustrating Nussbaum’s point about how disgust flourishes in an environment that lacks both sympathy and respect. In contrast, people with AD are dependent on others, and elicit as well as experience emotional responses. Therefore, resistance to the zombie trope may be strengthened by emphasis on a kind of dependence that is built on sympathy and respect.

   AD is not constructed as a disease of the unfortunate few but as a disease that affects us all. This point is echoed in zombie scholarship: ‘in a literal sense, we are all, as living beings

   AD is no longer a private problem but a social issue. Only in this way will what Nussbaum (2010: xviii) calls a ‘politics of disgust’ be replaced by a ‘politics of humanity’. The understanding that it is connectedness and mutual interdependence that makes us human is echoed in of all places the 2009 film Zombieland. After joining forces with three other people to survive a zombie outbreak, the character named Columbus states at the end of the film that what made their survival possible was that they had each other. He concludes, ‘Without other people, well, you might as well be a zombie’. Just as strong human connections are the key to fighting zombies, such respect and sympathy are certainly required to contend with AD. Such a stance would make the application of the zombie metaphor to people with AD not only impolitic but also unthinkable