In an interdisciplinary study, I argue that narrative fiction centred around old women, through its appeal to readers' imaginations, can challenge the ageism which currently governs how old women are scripted and depicted. / Chapter one situates media broadcasts amidst other discourses, such as academic theory, medical language, gerontology, and popular feminism, which confront---or avoid confronting---old women. To counter common, negative cultural depictions, chapter two examines Margaret Lock and Simone de Beauvoir's engagements with narratives of aging. I combine de Beauvoir's constructivist La Vieillesse and midlife fiction with Jean-Paul Sartre's What is Literature?, Martha Nussbaum's Poetic Justice, and Mieke Bal's Narratology to articulate how narrative fiction can compel what I call a committed reader to reimagine social possibilities for old women. / Chapter three foregrounds old age as a new category of analysis for Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, sifting through her metaphors of decrepitude to set up a model for studying three potential, late life, female social roles. / Chapter four connects Joan Barfoot's Duet for Three with Hiromi Goto's Chorus of Mushrooms, which both depart from the previous age-as-decrepitude convention, to propose that the role of grandmother offers old women opportunities to give freely and benefit from non-possessive love, in a family context. In chapter five, I examine how gerontological nursing textbooks theorize institutional care to illuminate how Edna Alford's A Sleep Full of Dreams and Shani Mootoo's Cereus Blooms at Night facilitate an intergenerational bond within nursing homes. Caregivers' communicative strategies in each text exemplify how readers' imaginative engagement could begin to counter negative cultural attitudes. In chapter six, I explore how female friendship, as depicted in Barfoot's Charlotte and Claudia Keeping in Touch and Cynthia Scott's The Company of Strangers, offers old women an interdependence which enables the self sufficiency they often (are considered to) lack, eschewing a old age versus youth binary opposition. / I conclude that narrative fiction provides opportunities to shift cultural meanings of the conventionally negative term old, so that committed reading can transform imagined possibilities and lead to new perceptions of old women.

No description available.

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1980. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Reading Specialist). Includes bibliographical references (p.72-76).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 1986. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-133).

M.A. / Old age is a universal experience. Poets in general and Afrikaans poets in particular use imagination and metaphor to understand and make sense of the experience of old age and nearing death. To understand one domain of experience in terms of another we need metaphor that unites reason and imagination. Language is based on cognition. According to cognitive semantics we mentally group together similar, but disparate, entities and transformations of image schemas. A conceptual domain consists basically of interrelated entities emanating from universal experiences. The purpose of this study is to give an account of various (mainly cognitive) theories on metaphor and to use the cognitive approach to disclose the main conceptual domains which act as source domains and are projected onto the target domain. The resulting metaphors describe the experience of old age and its physical and psychological infirmities and decay. By analysing various examples of metaphor it is argued that image schemas are different patterns of recurring bodily experiences that emerge from our perceptual understanding of actions and events in the world. The examples illustrate that image schemas/domains do not exist as single entities, but are often linked together to form relationships through different image schemata transformations. The poet as abstract author, but also the reader, creatively and imaginatively recognize a schema in a new situation and contrive metaphorical connections between various conceptual structures. Thus a metaphorical expression links two or more domains of experience. Metaphor is the means by which we project structure across categories to establish new connections. Structure from two or more input mental spaces is projected onto a separate "blended" space, which inherits partial structure from the inputs, and has emergent structure of its own. It is argued that creativity shows rationality and structure. In metaphorical projection, blending from different conceptual domains plays an important role in the process of creating meaning. The examples in this study reveal that metaphors are a reflection of the ecological, cultural and ideological background of the language community. Metaphors based on image schemata for path, time, cycle, container, balance and verticality are discussed by means of examples from the poetry of selected Afrikaans poets. Special attention is given to the works of poets who are themselves experiencing old age. This study arrives at the conclusion that language is inextricably entrenched in our cognitive make-up, as illustrated by the various metaphors conveying the experience of old age. The examples reveal that the path-, cycle- and time domains are the more important source domains for the old age metaphors. The metaphors not only describe the authors' emotions on experiencing old age, but also create emotions in the reader.

No description available.

This thesis examines three male characters from Willa Cather's writing that epitomize the American Dream of professional and material success but they find no contentment once they achieve it. This disillusionment is particularly so with Cather's driven male professionals, Bartley Alexander (an architectural scholar), and Clement Sebastian (a critically acclaimed, international opera singer). Cather situates these characters at middle age and at the peak of their professional careers, which makes the examination of them an interesting study as to the effects of the encroaching modern age on successful men. This thesis begins with a brief overview of Cather's work, including scholarly criticism of each novel, progresses to the examination of her successful male characters, and concludes with the investigation of Cather as a Modernist writer.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: With the discovery of the so-called “New Sappho” in 2004, there has been a revival in the research about Sappho, Greek lyric and old age in Greek literature. In this short fragment, Sappho writes about the symptoms of old age. She interweaves this with mythological references to Eos and Tithonus. It was especially this remarkable find that has focused my attention on the themes of old age, caducity, bodily decay and mortality in Greek literature. In my opinion the discovery of a new fragment of Greek poetry justifies research on this genre as well as the themes that occur in it. This thesis explores the following research question: What is the view of old age that is brought to the fore in a thematic examination of early Greek poetry? My discussion includes works by Sappho, Anacreon, Ibycus, Mimnermus, Tyrtaeus of Sparta, Solon of Athens, Theognis, Archilochus and Semonides of Amorgos. This thesis found that the view of old age in early Greek poetry is predominantly negative. The thesis proves the hypothesis that the view of old age, caducity, bodily decay and mortality that is brought to the fore in a thematic examination of early Greek poetry agrees with the negative view of these aspects as appears from the other literary genres from the Greek canon. In most cases there is a strong relationship between old age and eroticism and how old age obstructs eroticism. In these fragments we often find a human revolt on a universal scale against old age and the loss of love. The aged body is no longer seen as an erotic object. This also has serious implications for the social circumstances of the aged. The use of the first person voice stresses both the raw, personal experience of old age and the universal experience thereof. The first person plural in some cases underlines the collective attitude and experiences of the ageing person. Early Greek poets describe old age as πόλιος (grey), ὀδυνηρός (painful), ἀργαλέος (baneful), κακός (evil), ἄμορφος (ugly), οὐλόμενος (accursed) and ἄζηλος (unenviable). The epithets and adjectival clauses which are identified in the discussed poetry form a conceptual nexus of old age which is almost uniformly negative. Except for Tyrtaeus and maybe Solon, most poets have a disapproving, reproachful, despising and repulsive attitude towards old age. In these fragments, old age is described as the threshold to death. Old age in itself is a type of death, a living death. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Met die ontdekking van die sogenaamde “Nuwe Sappho” in 2004 het daar weer opflikkering gekom in die navorsing oor Sappho, die Griekse liriek en die ouderdom in Griekse letterkunde. In hierdie kort fragment skryf Sappho oor die simptome van die ouderdom en verweef sy dit ook met mitologiese verwysings na Eos en Tithonos. Dit is juis hierdie merkwaardige vonds wat my aandag gefokus het op die temas van ouderdom, verganklikheid, aftakeling en sterflikheid in die Griekse letterkunde. Die ontdekking van ʼn nuwe fragment Griekse poësie regverdig na myns insiens navorsing oor hierdie genre en dus ook die temas wat daarin voorkom. In hierdie tesis word die volgende navorsingsprobleem ondersoek: Wat is die siening van ouderdom, verganklikheid, aftakeling en sterflikheid wat na vore kom in ʼn tematiese ondersoek van die vroeë Griekse digkuns? My bespreking sluit werke deur Sappho, Anakreon, Ibukos, Mimnermos, Turtaios van Sparta, Solon van Athene, Theognis, Archilochos en Semonides van Amorgos in. In hierdie tesis is daar bevind dat die siening van die ouderdom in die vroeë Griekse digkuns oorwegend negatief is. Die tesis bewys die hipotese dat die siening van ouderdom, verganklikheid, aftakeling en sterflikheid wat na vore kom in ʼn tematiese ondersoek van die vroeë Griekse digkuns ooreenstem met die negatiewe siening oor hierdie aspekte wat in ander letterkundige genres van die Griekse kanon blyk. Daar is in die meeste gevalle ʼn sterk verbintenis tussen die ouderdom en die erotiek en hoe eersgenoemde die tweede kortwiek. Dikwels tref ons op ʼn universele vlak ʼn uiting van die menslike verset teen die ouderdom en die verlies van liefde in die fragmente aan. Die bejaarde liggaam word nie meer as ʼn erotiese voorwerp gesien nie. Dit het ook ernstige implikasies vir die sosiale omstandighede van die bejaardes. Die gebruik van die eerstepersoonspreker in die vroeë Griekse digkuns onderstreep tegelyk die rou, persoonlike belewenis van die ouderdom sowel as die universele ervaring daarvan. Die eerstepersoonsmeervoud in sekere gevalle beklemtoon die kollektiewe houding en ervaring van die ouerwordende mens. Die ouderdom word deur die vroeë Griekse digters as πόλιος (gryskop; grou), ὀδυνηρός (pynlik), ἀργαλέος (verderflik), κακός (boos), ἄμορφος (lelik), οὐλόμενος (vervloek) en ἄζηλος (onbenydenswaardig) uitgekryt. Die epiteta en byvoeglike bepalings wat in die bespreekte kortpoësie aangetref word, vorm ʼn konseptuele neksus van die ouderdom wat amper gelykmatig negatief is. Behalwe vir die uitsondering van Turtaios en miskien Solon, is die meeste digters se houding teenoor die ouderdom en bejaardes daardie van afkeer, verwyt, veragting en ongeneentheid. In dié fragmente word die ouderdom geskets as die drumpel tot die dood. Ouderdom is op sigself ʼn soort dood, ʼn lewende dood.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Göteborg University, 1983. / Added t.p. inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-203).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Göteborg University, 1983. / Added t.p. inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-203).