Introduction, relevance, and practicality of a research field

Literary and scientific research explores whether literary texts contain knowledge and their relationship with scientific knowledge. Literary interests change with the development of science, such as evolutionary biology in the 19th century, psychology and physics in the 20th century. Dementia, as a medical term, refers to a collection of conditions caused by brain diseases, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common. The symptoms of dementia include memory, comprehension, and behavioral disorders, leading to the loss of individual autonomy. Global scientists are studying dementia, but effective treatments have not yet emerged and can only delay symptoms. There are 1.8 million people in Germany and approximately 46.8 million people worldwide suffering from dementia, and the number continues to rise. Literary works attempt to describe and understand the pain of dementia patients, relying on personal experience, cultural knowledge, and scientific knowledge. Dementia is a real-life example of analyzing the relationship between literature and science, and analyzing literary texts that involve professional knowledge.

Two basic concepts, methods, and core issues

Since the 1980s, the relationship between literature and science has become a hot topic in literary and cultural studies, originating from Snow's "Two Cultures" theory. Literary works involve medical knowledge, especially for dementia patients, attempting to bridge the gap between humanities and natural sciences. However, literary studies typically do not constitute interdisciplinary research, as literary scholars and writers have limited contributions to medicine or psychiatry. Literary texts and annotations related to dementia participate in the discourse of dementia knowledge, which is led by medicine, psychiatry, geriatrics, and includes non scientific fields such as nursing, sociology, philosophy, etc. The "knowledge" in scientific texts is propositional knowledge, while the "knowledge" in non scientific texts is a set of statements that actors believe to be true and may not necessarily be scientifically validated. The ambiguity of this knowledge concept provides space for the research fields of knowledge history, scientific history, and knowledge sociology, including non propositional knowledge such as practical knowledge and empirical knowledge.

Analysis and Explanation of Three Examples

The chapter delves into the manifestations and significance of dementia in the fields of literature and science. Firstly, the article provides an overview of a corpus focused on dementia, including medical texts, patient narratives, family narratives, medical history narratives, as well as literary and artistic works. These texts showcase the multidimensional understanding of dementia to readers through different narrative styles, such as argumentative, narrative, and dialogic. Medical texts provide an objective and factual perspective, while patient narratives present the patient's inner feelings in the first person. The narratives of family members and caregivers are approached from an external perspective, using the discourse patterns and rhetorical devices of disease narratives.

Four criticisms/prospects

Explored the importance of dementia in the fields of literature and science, emphasizing its potential in historical, cross-cultural, and cross media research. The gender issue in the narrative of dementia was discussed, and it was pointed out that there is a lack of empirical research on the actual role of literary texts in healthcare workers, dementia patients, and their families. At the same time, it emphasizes the importance of literature, art, and humanities in revealing social relevance in the knowledge society of the post industrial era.