A Literary Inquiry into Disability, Trauma and Narrative Strategies in Lisa Genova’s Novels

The reaisltic illustration of central characters suffering from rare and severe neurological sicknesses in Lisa Genova’s novels provide an ideal prospect to study trauma in pathography novels, a subset of science fiction. However, despite its scope, these genres of novels have received little consideration in American literary trauma studies. This paper will present a new analysis of trauma in relationship to the ‘neuro’genre, followed by an analysis of narrative and literary devices employed by the author to illustrate traumatic episodes in her novels. Through this case study and critical reflection of how the author has engaged trauma in the novels supports strengthening literary trauma theory within trauma literature and the genre also. The writing of traumatic experiences of the victims, transformed identity, stigmas, fears and phobias and providing face to the sufferer doomed fate, offers an opportunity for a neuroscientist turned novelist like Lisa Genova to advocate about the neurological sicknesses and its suffering with enriched empathetic experience to the non-scientific societies. It also provides a balanced realistic narrative platform for the reader to reflect on their own uncertainties, brought on by the representation of such fictional characterization. This literary research analysis will provide scope to science fiction authors, particularly those aiming to engage with medicine and literature, for a more accurate depiction of trauma in their work. It will further broaden the scope of research in phenomenology, narrative and genre theories and criticism in literary studies. 


Introduction
According to Laurie Vickroy, trauma literature includes "fictional narratives that help reader to access traumatic experience" (Trauma and Survival in Contemporary Fiction 1). According to literary critics Alan Gibbs, trauma narratives in postmodern era is fascinated with the experimental forms employed in the representation of trauma becomes the primary motivation for literary production (Contemporary American Trauma Narratives).

Trauma fiction and neuro fiction as
Modern psychology also emphasizes the importance of trauma narratives as a means "to learn The novels discussed in this study share some of the concerns of psychological studies, including a focus on individual processes, on the dynamics and crises of memory and identity, and on how trauma victims reconstruct their life-stories around. The two-pronged approach to reading trauma narratives may help to bridge the gap between neuronarrative genre and certain theoretical trajectories, allowing us to redefine trauma less as a general cultural condition and more as a specific, multi-faceted and complex aspect of human experience.
Genova's novels at the junction between trauma and disability genre: Recent decades, a significant attention has been given to what Macro Roth said, in 2009, to the term 'neuronovel' also called as syndrome novel (as identified by Lustig and Peacock). According to Roth, what was previously referred to as the psychological novel, the novel of consciousness or the confessional novel, "has transformed itself into the neuronovel, wherein the mind becomes the brain"(The Rise of the Neuronovel). Roth's analysis is adapted by many critics across disciplines, where Francisco Ortega and Fernando Vidal classifies as 'neuro disciplines'. They argue: Since the 1990s, several disciplines, from neuroanthropology to neurotheology, have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences.
These "neurodisciplines" share basic assumptions about the brain/mind relationship, a preference for neuroimaging methodology, and the goal of establishing the sensibilities central to neurological diseases, cognitivity and disability by creating realistic characters in her novels. Neuroscience is the heart of the author's novels and is written in a free indirect discourse which remains very close to its main characters, is able to break off in order to meditate occasionally on neurological and medical facts before returning to a more well-recognized form of narration. Her novels are written in first-person or close third-person narration, so that consciousness and the way that it is understood and represented forms a significant part of the narrative. The study of genre is in itself diverse and complex, and needs individual attention and beyond the scope of this research paper. But Racheal Holland in her book Contemporary Fiction and Science from Amis to Mc Ewan: The Third Culture labelled that neuronovels stand out away from science fiction in way, "since the 'neuro' part of each novel is utilized by their authors as a tool with which to maintain the status and reputation of the novel, rather than as a generic framework" (83).This helps to give reason for positioning Genova's novels within this new genre or subgenre of neuronovels.
The reasons for associating Lisa Genova's neuronovel to trauma literature are because both the genres display duality in their storyline. On one side of the story, it handles the traumatic event, memories and identity that is typical to trauma literature and the disease and disability as traumatic event which in many recent studies associated with PTSD, while on the other side attempts to reconstruct the event to adapt and survive. This parallel creates an entry point of the author's novels to fit into trauma literature.
Lisa Genova's novels are self-reflective psychological narratives that tell us the story of individual and collective experience with chronic neurological conditions and its devasting effects. Her novels are filled with diseased and disabled individuals whose weakening bodies and consciousness prevent them from being themselves. For trauma scholars, these novels represent a complex psychological perspective on medical conditions, which seemed to drift

Narrative language on disability
Despite of reading Genova's novels as neuronarrtives, I propose to consider her novels with a closed attention to disease and disability. In order to sustain this argument, one needs to identify critical vocabulary on disease and disability into existing discussion about trauma, memory and identity in Genova's novels. Such a vocabulary, however, remains vague. As James Berger argues, a "discursive abyss" separating disability studies from trauma studies has resulted in two separate and disconnected theoretical discussions about frequently overlapping phenomena (563). Within disability studies, this discursive abyss manifests itself in the absence of a sustained inquiry into trauma and loss. Berger comments on the political origins of disability studies-namely, its links with the disability rights movement in the US, its critique of oppressive discourses that have constructed the absolute alterity of those who live with disabilities, and its concern with "achieving equal access to full social, professional, and political lives" for disabled individuals-has taken precedence over an exploration of the "particularities of loss" of any one individual. Indeed, these political goals have resulted in a reluctance to admit that disability is at times accompanied by feelings of loss, fear, or mourning. Berger finds this omission somewhat "remarkable": Not all instances of disability are traumatic, certainly not in a direct way. But many are, such as those produced by war, accident, and sudden debilitating illness, both for the individuals affected and for their families … A theory of disability might well try to include a theory of loss specific to disability-that is, the loss of physical, mental, and neurological capacities. The world itself, and one's own body, must be relearned, processes clearly analogous to some of the central concerns of trauma studies. One would think that a theory of disability would address such questions of York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader, described it as "a story that must be told" and "heartbreakingly real". Although her novels are marketed as stories about diseases, "readers will find comfort on the beauty of Genova's prose and ability to create profound emotional moments" (Winnipeg Free Press). USA today commented that "Genova is the master of getting into the heads of her characters, relating from the inside out … brilliantly" .She authored five celebrated novels till date where her "characters live out our nightmarethey lose the ability to think and move, they forget the people they love, they suffer excruciating pain, and they learn that their children have inherited the same fatal disease"  No longer she is able to lead "the fast pace, the high intensity, contributing to something important, feeling powerful and sophisticated, being effective", and she is forced to depend on others for her survival (343). Pointing to her disability, Sarah confesses that "I want to dive back in, I'm not willing to compromise the quality of work that the company needs or my reputation for delivering it" (344). The social position of such impaired victims changes as the character labelled. They are vulnerable physically, both individually and collectively.
The novel Still Alice also draws us to similar comparison between a chronic neurological disease, Alzheimer's disease and disability. As the protagonist of the novel worries "Is my soul and spirit immune to the ravages of Alzheimer's? I believe it is."Being diagnosed with Alzheimer's is like being branded with a scarlet A. This is now who I am, someone with dementia. This was how I would, for a time, define myself and how others continue to define me (Still Alice282)". Such a disability doesn't kill them but make them impaired with its consequences. We can comprehend Alice's, once a successful professor's, suffering including cognitive as well as emotional pain, and the daily experience of living in changing brain in many ways which makes her forget her yesterdays.
Hence, Genova's novels portray the inner struggle of the character's accept their permanently altered neurological identity. It constitutes the central dramatic part of the author's advocacy to empathise loss and loneliness. Focusing on such experiences enables the readers to better understand the ways in which their neurological transformation is associated to their identity and body.

Fragmentation
According to Goldsmith and Satterlee, fragmentation is one strategy employed to "convey the fracturing of time, self and reality that … accompanies traumatic episodes or recall" using literary devices such as analepsis ( Joe replays the memory, and he sees his mother again and anew. Unable to walk or feed herself, unable to defend her reputation from the rumors that she was a drunk and a sinner and a bad mother, unable to live at home or hug her kids or tuck them into bed at night, she's smiling with her eyes at Joe. In the end, his mother wasn't just a living corpse waiting to die in a hospital. She was a wife and mother who loved her family, grateful to see them and still love them for as long as she could.
Tears stream down Joe's temples, wetting his hair as he remembers his mother, no longer the grotesque monster he despised and blamed and was ashamed of.
She was Ruth O'Brien, his mother, a woman who had HD through no fault of her own, who gave her family love and gratitude when she had nothing else to give.
After all these years, he sees his mother. Re-membered. (290) In In comparison to all her novels, the structure of Left Neglected is significantly fastpaced liner narrative. The first six chapters primarily focus on her dreams. The reader is introduced to her stress filled multitasking life, until chapter seven where her everyday normal world is seen to be shattered due to traumatic brain accident leaving her with a rare  (Inside the O'Briens268)". Here one can observe the author's intention use of depicting places and landscapes which symbolises grim, threat and darkness. So, this narrative strategy serves o align the novel with trauma fiction genre where the stylistic language used to personify location as a character set the novel apart from popular genre fiction.
In Every Note Played, there is similar dominance of location where reader can repeatedly return to the site of traumatic experiences. It is a fast-paced linear narrative of genre neuro novel that moves the reader rapidly from scene to scene and between the characters Katrina and Richard. Places personified not only act as a character motif like the before novel, but are also purposed as a setting in which the traumatic action takes place.
The room feels strange without Richard in it … He lived in this room for only four months, but it no longer feels like her den. Richard had ALS in this room. She looks at his empty bed, the wheelchair, his desk chair, and feels his energetic impression everywhere, this room still thick with intense memories of Richard and his ALS. Her eyes well, and she rubs the goose bumps on her arms. Or he's decided to haunt her.
(Every Note Played 296) The use of characterisation strategies that use places or locations as a character motif or setting, offers a way for fiction writers like Lisa Genova to discover the themes of trauma and suffering and render her novels with empathetic benefits to its readers.

Conclusion
To conclude, engaging narrative strategies to exemplify trauma in the ways that hold similar purposes to trauma literature offers an opportunity for neurofiction writers, particularly authors like Lisa Genova, who aim to engage with trauma, suffering and fiction, attempts to portray a more authentic representation of trauma in their work. This kind of attempt may enable authors like Genova to be placed in the literary category of trauma literature and open up opportunities for its use as a fiction for therapeutic purposes. The approach has the potentiality to bring transformative benefits to its readers and educate them with empathetic knowledge of trauma, which may transform perceptions, remove stigmas and thereby assist in combating the marginalisation towards such illness and disability. In addition, it provides a safe narrative space for readers to confront their own fears, as they are exposed to traumatic events in more graphic and perilous ways in today's world. This investigation provides a foundation for narrative strategies that lapse the boundaries between genre and literary fiction and leads the way for further research into the potential that narrative has to evoke psychological and emotional growth in treating psychological conditions brought on by trauma.