Age, Gender and Feminism: Addressing the Gap from Literary and Cultural Perspectives

Although important demographic shifts have generated both an interest and profound transformations in sociocultural interpretations of ageing and old age, the experience of growing older is still perceived negatively and is often measured according to how successfully people adapt to the current Western ideals of later life. In the light of recent research on cultural and literary representations of ageing, this article critically addresses contemporary American writer Erica Jong's mid-life and later works from feminist and gender perspectives. It shows how the author's writings contest the narrative of decline and ageism and incorporate some aspects of positive ageing in terms of body image. Yet, instead of following the model of successful ageing, Jong offers alternative views of ageing femininities and sexuality that enable a different narrative of growing older to emerge. The writer's work also shows that socially and culturally constructed gender and power relationships can be deconstructed, which allows for new forms of self-expression that are not moulded into anti-ageing discourses and their neoliberal imperatives

Roald Dahl's eerie landlady : A macabre tale of aging

This article examines Roald Dahl's adult short story ‘The Landlady’ through the lens of age studies and the horror genre. It explores how different symbolic and gothic textual elements contribute to the narrative of decline and the negative notion of later life. Special attention is given to female aging and dementia, which is presented as a horrifying ‘silent killer’ embodied in the figure of a witch. In the story, older age is portrayed as a source of horror and evokes a fear of aging that is linked to gradual bodily, mental, and social decline. Although Dahl's tale provides some hints that aging can be empowering and liberating for older women, the portrayal of the landlady proves that older age is enshrined in negative and even grotesque perceptions of later life. The use of horror helps further expose the individual and societal fears of growing older and the challenges of aging. The sardonic and twisted ending of the story also reveals the complexities of both growing up and growing older. Shedding light on Dahl's dark narrative from the perspective of age studies offers new vantage points from which to review the author's literary legacy and rethink the representations of aging in popular literature. Ultimately, the article adds to interdisciplinary approaches to older age and shows how humanities-based perspectives can contribute to expanding research into aging and later life

A Creative Writing Workshop on Sexuality and Ageing: A Spanish Pilot Case Study

Negative stereotypes about old age abound in our present-day society, which often considers older people as sexually incapable or even asexual. On the other hand, active ageing ideologies foster the practice of sex in later life as a sign of healthy and active ageing. The aim of this pilot case study was to examine the impact that poetry on sexuality, ageing and creativity had on older individuals. In total eight participants, aged 49–76, participated in a workshop offered by the University of Lleida (Spain). The initial hypothesis was that the participants, following the example set by the poems, would produce pieces of creative writing in which they voiced their own concerns and experiences about sexuality in later life from the distance that metaphor grants. While some of the participants’ writings engaged with the poems that deal with sexuality in older age, none of the participants’ creative pieces contained explicit instances of sexual experiences. The analysis of the participants’ creative pieces suggests that: first, they regard intimacy in older age as essential; and second, their unwillingness to write about sexuality in older age is partly rooted in their upbringing during Franco’s dictatorial regime, in which sexuality for non-reproductive aims was constructed as immoral

Reconstructing the Social Image of Older Women and Ageing : The Transformative Power of the Narrative Set in the Local Context

This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social work, and the outcomes of the subsequent classroom discussions with the author of the book. The study results show that better knowledge about the complexities of ageing and later life can lead to the reconstruction of the students’ viewpoints about older age, help foster critical thinking, and defy age-related stereotypes, beliefs, and prejudices.This study is part of the ECAVINAR research project “Ageing, Quality of Life and Creativity through Narrative” (FFI2016-79666-TR) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO. It has also received funding from the ASISA Foundation Chair of “Health, Education and Quality of Life”