Framing Ageing
Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Humanities and Social Sciences Research
Will be published approx. on 27. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-1-350-34145-6 (ISBN)
Description
Framing Ageing, available open access, addresses scholars from across the Humanities and Social Sciences who want to approach the urgent topic of old age in their work, mapping the intellectual state of the field and putting the most salient concepts in action.
Bringing together established and emerging scholars of old age from the humanities and social sciences as well as gerontologists and medical practitioners, this open access book showcases new scholarship and provides new methods and terms for ongoing conversations about old age as an object of analysis in contemporary culture.
Cultural policy makers and scholars alike regularly describe a "visibility crisis" of old age, a consistent erasure or repression of images of older people from public view. Co-edited by an art historian and two literary scholars with a shared interest in memory, Framing Ageing examines the in/visibility of old age from a range of disciplinary angles, including philosophy, social history, comparative literature and anthropology. In addition to examining literary texts, this volume includes a chapter in graphic form and carries out innovative analyses of film, the built environment, fine art and commercial images.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Wellcome Trust.
Bringing together established and emerging scholars of old age from the humanities and social sciences as well as gerontologists and medical practitioners, this open access book showcases new scholarship and provides new methods and terms for ongoing conversations about old age as an object of analysis in contemporary culture.
Cultural policy makers and scholars alike regularly describe a "visibility crisis" of old age, a consistent erasure or repression of images of older people from public view. Co-edited by an art historian and two literary scholars with a shared interest in memory, Framing Ageing examines the in/visibility of old age from a range of disciplinary angles, including philosophy, social history, comparative literature and anthropology. In addition to examining literary texts, this volume includes a chapter in graphic form and carries out innovative analyses of film, the built environment, fine art and commercial images.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Wellcome Trust.
Reviews / Votes
This is an important collection that begins to establish what the editors call a 'lyric gerontology'. It is an ambitious and highly interdisciplinary volume that brings together fields including psychology, literary studies and ethics. * Sarah Falcus, Reader in Contemporary Literature, University of Huddersfield, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
15 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
406 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-34145-6 (9781350341456)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Anne Fuchs is Professor and Director of the Humanities Institute at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Julia Langbein is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Mary Cosgrove is Professor of German and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Julia Langbein is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Mary Cosgrove is Professor of German and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Content
Langbein, Fuchs, and Cosgrove: "Introduction"
Desmond O'Neill: "Cultural Gerontology at the Intersection"
Section I. The Open Body: Resisting Biomedical Old Age
1. Robert Zwinjenberg: "Ageing, Biomedicine and the 'Risk of Life'"
2. Linda Shortt: "(Un)Fit Ageing: Hermann Kinder and the Ageing Male"
3. Aleida Assmann, "On Wisdom"
Section II. The Everyday: Locating Complexity in Old Age
4. Wendy Martin: "Ageing, Materiality, and Everyday Life"
5. Anne Fuchs, "Gender, the Politics of Looking, and the Narration of Old Age: Elizabeth
Strout's Empathetic Realism in Olive, Again"
6. Andrew King, "Reframing LGBT+ Ageing in Challenging Times"
Section III. The Language of Ageing: Critical Reading Across Disciplines
7. Ulla Kriebernegg, "Growing Old Amid Climate Change: Dystopian Narratives of
Vulnerability and Resistance"
8. Gillian Pye, "Well-Being and Happiness in Care Home Narratives"
9. Susan Pickard, "Gender, Sexuality, and The Double-Standard of Ageing in Later Life"
10. Moise Roche: "Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Later Life: Problematic Categorisations and
Definitions"
Section IV. Intimacy and Experience: Alternative Analyses of Ageing
11. Dana Walrath: "Between Alice and the Eagle: Dementia Journeys and the Final Breath"
12. Ailbhe Smith, "Unseen, Unheard, Untouched: A View from the Interior"
13. Helen Doherty, "Heard and Seen: Distance and Proximity in Ken Wardrop's Cocooned
(2021)"
Section V. The Social Imaginary: History and the Public Face of Old Age
14. David Troyanski, "JR's Wrinkles of the City' Project: Representing Global Old Age,
2008-2015"
15. Mary Cosgrove, "The Meaning of Middle Age in Terezia Mora's Darius-Kopp Trilogy"
16. Julia Langbein, "Born Old: The 'Discovery' of a Lost Generation of Black American
Artists and their Challenge to Late Style"
Desmond O'Neill: "Cultural Gerontology at the Intersection"
Section I. The Open Body: Resisting Biomedical Old Age
1. Robert Zwinjenberg: "Ageing, Biomedicine and the 'Risk of Life'"
2. Linda Shortt: "(Un)Fit Ageing: Hermann Kinder and the Ageing Male"
3. Aleida Assmann, "On Wisdom"
Section II. The Everyday: Locating Complexity in Old Age
4. Wendy Martin: "Ageing, Materiality, and Everyday Life"
5. Anne Fuchs, "Gender, the Politics of Looking, and the Narration of Old Age: Elizabeth
Strout's Empathetic Realism in Olive, Again"
6. Andrew King, "Reframing LGBT+ Ageing in Challenging Times"
Section III. The Language of Ageing: Critical Reading Across Disciplines
7. Ulla Kriebernegg, "Growing Old Amid Climate Change: Dystopian Narratives of
Vulnerability and Resistance"
8. Gillian Pye, "Well-Being and Happiness in Care Home Narratives"
9. Susan Pickard, "Gender, Sexuality, and The Double-Standard of Ageing in Later Life"
10. Moise Roche: "Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Later Life: Problematic Categorisations and
Definitions"
Section IV. Intimacy and Experience: Alternative Analyses of Ageing
11. Dana Walrath: "Between Alice and the Eagle: Dementia Journeys and the Final Breath"
12. Ailbhe Smith, "Unseen, Unheard, Untouched: A View from the Interior"
13. Helen Doherty, "Heard and Seen: Distance and Proximity in Ken Wardrop's Cocooned
(2021)"
Section V. The Social Imaginary: History and the Public Face of Old Age
14. David Troyanski, "JR's Wrinkles of the City' Project: Representing Global Old Age,
2008-2015"
15. Mary Cosgrove, "The Meaning of Middle Age in Terezia Mora's Darius-Kopp Trilogy"
16. Julia Langbein, "Born Old: The 'Discovery' of a Lost Generation of Black American
Artists and their Challenge to Late Style"