This article discusses the translation of ethnographic research on embodied selfhood
in Alzheimer’s disease into a dramatic production for nurses and ancillary
health care professionals working with persons who are cognitively impaired. The
appeal of dramatic performance as an alternative medium for the translation and
dissemination of research is that it provides an accessible presentation of research
to audiences of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, it recovers the experiential
immediacy of the body present in the original data-gathering setting, and it can
foster critical awareness and engage audiences to envision new possibilities. It is
our contention that Expressions of Personhood in Alzheimer’s is
an ethnodramatic production that will bring to fruition all of these strengths of
the performance paradigm.
Bakhtin, M. M.
(1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press
.
2.
Boal, A.
(1992) Games for Actors and Non-Actors.
New York: Routledge
.
3.
Bourdieu, P.
(1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice (R. Nice,
Trans.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
4.
Bourdieu, P.
(1990) The Logic of Practice (R. Nice, Trans.).
Cambridge: Polity Press
.
5.
Clifford, J.
(1986) ‘Introduction: Partial
Truths’, in
J. Clifford
and
G. Marcus
(eds) Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography,
pp. 1-26.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press
.
6.
Clifford, J.
(1988) Predicament of Culture.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
7.
Closs, C.
and
Cheater, F.
(1994)
‘Utilization of Nursing Research: Culture, Interest, and Support’
, Journal of Advanced Nursing19(4):
762-773
.
8.
Conquergood, D.
(1991)
‘Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics’
, Communication Monographs58:
179-194
.
9.
Conquergood, D.
(1992)
‘Ethnography, Rhetoric, and Performance’
, Quarterly Journal of Speech78:
80-123
.
10.
Csordas, T.
(1994) ‘Introduction: The Body as Representation
and Being-in-the-World’, in
T. Csordas
(ed.) Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and
Self, pp. 1-24.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
11.
Dalziel, W. B.
(1994)
‘Dementia: No longer the Silent Epidemic’
, Canadian Medical Association Journal151(10):
1407-1409
.
12.
Davis, D.
(2004)
‘Dementia: Sociological and Philosophical Constructions’
, Social Science and Medicine58(2):
369-378
.
13.
Denzin, N.
(1997) Interpretive Ethnography: Ethnographic Practices for
the 21st Century.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
.
14.
Denzin, N.
(2000)
‘Aesthetics and the Practices of Qualitative Inquiry’
, Qualitative Inquiry6(2):
256-265
.
15.
Eisner, E.
(1988) The Role of Discipline-Based Art Education in American
Schools.
Los Angeles, CA: Paul Getty Trust
.
16.
Eisner, E.
(1998) The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the
Enhancement of Educational Practice.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill
.
17.
Ekman, S.
,
Norberg, A.
,
Viitanen, M.
and
Winblad, B.
(1991)
‘Care of Demented Patients with Severe Communication Problems’
, Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences5(3):
163-170
.
18.
Fabian, J.
(1990) Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations
through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire.
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press
.
19.
Farkas, M.
,
Jette, A.
,
Tennstedt, S.
,
Haley, S.
and
Quinn, V.
(2003)
‘Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization in Gerontology: An
Organizing Framework’
, The Gerontologist43(1):
47-56
.
20.
Fontana, A.
and
Smith, R. W.
(1989)
‘Alzheimer’s Disease Victims: The
“Unbecoming” of Self and the Normalization of Competence’
, Sociological Perspectives32(1):
35-46
.
21.
Gray, R.
,
Ivonoffski, V.
and
Sinding, C.
(2002) ‘Making a Mess and Spreading it Around:
Articulation of an Approach to Research-Based Theatre’, in
A. Bochner
and
C. Ellis
(eds) Ethnographically Speaking, pp. 57-75.
Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press
.
22.
Gray, R.
,
Sinding, C.
and
Fitch, M.
(2001)
‘Navigating the Social Context of Metastatic Breast Cancer:
Reflections on a Project Linking Research to Drama’
, Health5(2):
233-248
.
23.
Gray, R.
,
Fitch, M.
,
Labrecque, M.
and
Greenberg, M.
(2003)
‘Reactions of Health Professionals to a Research-Based Theatre Production’
, Journal of Cancer Education18(4):
223-229
.
24.
Gray, R.
,
Sinding, C.
,
Ivonoffski, V.
,
Fitch, M.
,
Hampson, A.
and
Greenberg, M.
(2000)
‘The Use of Research-Based Theatre in a Project Related to
Metastatic Breast Cancer’
, Health Expectations3(2):
137-144
.
25.
Heritage, P.
(1994)
‘The Courage to be Happy: Augusto Boal, Legislative Theatre, and
the 7th International Festival of the Theatre of the Oppressed’
, The Drama Review38(3):
25-34
.
26.
Jackson, M.
(1996) ‘Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical
Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique’, in
M. Jackson
(ed.) Things as They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological
Anthropology, pp. 1-50.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
.
27.
Jonas-Simpson, C.
(2001)
‘From Silence to Voice: Knowledge, Values, and Beliefs Guiding
Healthcare Practices with Persons Living with Dementia’
, Nursing Science Quarterly14(4):
304-310
.
28.
Kitwood, T.
(1997) Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First.
Buckingham: Open University Press
.
29.
Kontos, P. (2003) ‘Embodied Selfhood: An Ethnography of
Alzheimer’s Disease’, Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Toronto.
30.
Kontos, P.
(2004a) ‘Embodied Selfhood: Redefining Agency in
Alzheimer’s Disease’, in
E. Tulle
(ed.) Old Age and Agency, pp. 105-121.
New York: Nova Science Publishers
.
31.
Kontos, P.
(2004b)
‘Ethnographic Reflections on Selfhood, Embodiment and
Alzheimer’s Disease’
, Ageing and Society24(6):
829-849
.
32.
Kontos, P.
(2005)
‘Embodied Selfhood in Alzheimer’s Disease: Rethinking
Person-Centred Care’
, Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice4(4):
553-570
.
33.
Loomis, M.
(1985)
‘Knowledge Utilization and Research Utilization in Nursing’
, IMAGE: Journal of Nursing Scholarship17(2):
35-39
.
34.
Luker, K. A.
,
Austin, L.
,
Caress, A.
and
Hallett, C. E.
(2000)
‘The Importance of “Knowing the Patient”:
Community Nurses’ Constructions of Quality in Providing Palliative Care’
, Journal of Advanced Nursing31(4):
775-782
.
35.
Merleau-Ponty, M.
(1962) Phenomenology of Perception (C. Smith, Trans.).
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
.
36.
Mienczakowski, J.
(1992) Syncing Out Loud: A Journey Into Illness.
Brisbane: Griffith University Reprographics
.
37.
Mienczakowski, J.
(1995)
‘The Theater of Ethnography: The Reconstruction of Ethnography
into Theater with Emancipatory Potential’
, Qualitative Inquiry1(3):
360-375
.
38.
Mienczakowski, J.
(1999)
‘Ethnography in the Hands of Participants: Tools of Dramatic Discovery’
, Studies in Educational Ethnography2:
145-161
.
39.
Mienczakowski, J.
(2001) ‘Ethnodrama: Performed Research -
Limitations and Potential’, in
P. Atkinson
,
A. Coffey
,
S. Delamont
and
J. Lofland
(eds) Handbook of Ethnography, pp. 468-476.
London: Sage
.
40.
Mienczakowski, J.
and
Morgan, S.
(1993) Busting: The Challenge of the Drought Spirit.
Brisbane: Griffith University Reprographics
.
41.
Mienczakowski, J.
,
Smith, L.
and
Morgan, S.
(2002) ‘Seeing Words - Hearing Feelings:
Ethnodrama and the Performance of Data’, in
C. Bagley
and
M. Cancienne
(eds) Dancing the Data, pp. 34-52.
New York: Peter Lang
.
42.
Mottola, C.
(1996)
‘Research Utilization and the Continuing Staff Development Educator’
, Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing27(4):
168-173
.
43.
Norberg, A.
and
Asplund, K.
(1990)
‘Caregivers’ Experience of Meaning in Caring for
Severely Demented Patients in the Terminal Phase of Life’
, Western Journal of Nursing Research12(1):
75-84
.
44.
Paget, M.
(1993) A Complex Sorrow: Reflections on Cancer and an
Abbreviated Life.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press
.
45.
Phelan, P.
(1997) Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories.
London: Routledge
.
46.
Pillemer, K.
,
Suitor, J.
and
Wethington, E.
(2003)
‘Integrating Theory, Basic Research, and Intervention: Two Case
Studies from Caregiving Research’
, The Gerontologist43(1):
19-28
.
47.
Saldaña, J.
(2003)
‘Dramatizing Data: A Primer’
, Qualitative Inquiry9(2):
218-236
.
48.
Sinding, C.
,
Gray, R.
,
Fitch, M.
and
Greenberg, M.
(2002)
‘Staging Breast Cancer, Rehearsing Metastatic Disease’
, Qualitative Health Research12(1):
61-73
.
49.
Stucky, N.
(1993)
‘Toward an Aesthetics of Natural Performance’
, Text and Performance Quarterly13:
168-180
.
50.
Tappen, R. M.
,
Williams, C.
,
Fishman, S.
and
Touhy, T.
(1999)
‘Persistence of Self in Advanced Alzheimer’s Disease’
, Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship31(2):
121-125
.
51.
Turner, V.
(1986) The Anthropology of Performance.
New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications
.
52.
Tyler, S.
(1987) The Unspeakable: Discourse, Dialogue and Rhetoric in
the Postmodern World.
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press
.
53.
Whittemore, R.
(2000)
‘Consequences of Not “Knowing the Patient”’
, Clinical Nurse Specialist14(2):
75-81
.
