1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910797692503321

Autore

Burack-Weiss Ann

Titolo

The lioness in winter : writing an old woman's life / / Ann Burack-Weiss

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

0-231-52533-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 p.)

Disciplina

809/.93354

Soggetti

Old age in literature

Older women in literature

Aging in literature

Literature - Women authors - History and criticism

Life change events in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- INTRODUCTION. Aging, I Wrote -- 1. WHO IS THAT OLD WOMAN? -- 2. WHAT SHE THINKS ABOUT SOMETIMES, SOME DAYS, ABOUT SOME THINGS -- 3. I HAD LOOKED AT MYSELF IN THE FULL-LENGTH MIRROR -- 4. HOW WE ARE WITH EACH OTHER -- 5. BUT WHO WERE THEY? -- 6. THERE IS A GRACE IN DEATH, THERE IS LIFE -- 7. MY MAP OF A PLACE -- 8. INTERESTED IN BIG THINGS AND HAPPY IN SMALL WAYS -- 9. JUST SHOW UP -- 10. FIERCE WITH REALITY -- CONCLUSION. Aging, I Write -- AFTERWORD. Bright as Stars in the Heaven of My Mind -- Annotated Readings -- References

Sommario/riassunto

When she started working with the aged more than forty years ago, Ann Burack-Weiss began storing the knowledge and skills she thought would help when she got old herself. It was not until she hit her mid-seventies that she realized she had packed sneakers to climb Mount Everest, not anticipating the crevices and chasms that constitute the rocky terrain of old age. The professional gerontological and social work literature offered little help, so she turned to the late-life works of beloved women authors who had bravely climbed the mountain and sent back news from the summit. Maya Angelou, Colette, Simone de



Beauvoir, Joan Didion, Marguerite Duras, M. F. K. Fisher, Doris Lessing, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, May Sarton, and Florida Scott-Maxwell were among the many guides she turned to for inspiration. In The Lioness in Winter, Burack-Weiss blends an analysis of key writings from these and other famed women authors with her own wisdom to create an essential companion for older women and those who care for them. She fearlessly examines issues such as living with loss, finding comfort and joy in unexpected places, and facing disability and death. This book is filled with powerful passages from women who turned their experiences of aging into art, and Burack-Weiss ties their words to her own struggles and epiphanies, framing their collective observations with key insights from social work practice.