Falling into the Nowhere: Losing Identity with Alzheimer’s in Lisa Genova’s Still Alice

ABSTRACT This article puts flesh on the bones of questions concerning the profound impact of Alzheimer’s on identity, using Lisa Genova’s Still Alice (2007) as a focal point and guide. The novel tells the story of Alice, a professor at Harvard who develops early onset Alzheimer’s, taking readers on a journey through the experiences of memory loss and its tragic ramifications. Using literary and psycho-philosophical insights, this article argues that Alice’s personal identity undergoes a profound transformation, challenging the notion that she remains the same Alice as implied by the novel’s title. Indeed, literature can be seen as a laboratory where the unknown realms of diseases can be vividly observed and contemplated. Literature can broaden our understanding of how this neurological disorder affects Alice’s sense of self. In an interdisciplinary approach, this article focuses on three key aspects: chronotopic identity (a concept that has never been explored in relation to Alzheimer’s), narrative identity, and psycho-existential perspectives. In short, this article thus aims at clarifying the changing, unknown, and unstable nature of Alice’s identity within the pages of the novel. Additionally, the article examines how Alzheimer’s is used as a literary device by analyzing some images, symbols, and figurative language in general.