Aging Experiments : Futures and Fantasies of Old Age / / ed. by João Paulo Guimarães

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910833000103321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Bielefeld : , : transcript Verlag, , [2023]; ©2023
• ISBN: 3-8394-6283-5
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (226 p.)
• Collana: Edition Kulturwissenschaft ; ; 278
• Disciplina: 809.93355
• Soggetti: Aging in literature; Youth in literature; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gerontology
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Unnatural Aging -- Fantasies of Agelessness and Age Hierarchies in Mary Poppins Returns -- Doris Lessing's Eccentric Old Women -- The Old Child in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Series -- Life after Youth -- “how to dance / sitting down” -- Dancing Relational Bodyhood -- A Recognition of Certain Realities -- A Measure of Dignity? -- Crones, Care Homes, and Crises -- Eternity is Nothing but a Second -- Queering Time, Questioning Ageism Through Speculative Siction -- Authors
• Sommario/riassunto: The sustained expansion of the life span and the attendant demographic changes in the West have fuelled the production of cultural texts that explore alternative representations of aging and old age. The contributors to this volume show how artists in science-fiction, fantasy and the avant-garde develop visions of late life transformation, improvisation and adaptation to new circumstances. The studies particularly focus on perspectives on aging that challenge the predominant narratives of decline as well as fantasies of eternal youth, as defined by neoliberal notions of health, able-bodiedness, agency, self-improvement, progress, plasticity and productivity.