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).

No description available.

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).

This thesis examines ideas about old age in four anecdotes and their illustrations from the 1334 illustrated Mamluk volume of al-Hariri's (1054-1122) Maqamat in the context of early (1250-1382) Mamluk society. The Maqamat contains fifty short anecdotes with a common plot format and two main characters. In each anecdote, the narrator al-Harith relates an adventure of the hero Abu Zayd, an elderly beggar who travels throughout the medieval Islamic Middle East. Using his talent as an orator, Abu Zayd draws people together in a public place, performs an eloquent speech, and is rewarded with money and goods. Ideas about the status of old age in Muslim society originate in the Qur 'an and hadith. Attitudes about the elderly are expressed in other selected texts and in painting (frescoes and manuscript illustration). In the 1334 Mamluk volume, Maqamat illustrations either enhance the text or function independently of the text. Images portray old age as a vehicle for the transmission of knowledge and authority in the social roles of literary scholar, judge, religious leader, and teacher.

L’omniprésence du thème du vieillissement dans la poésie de Philippe Jaccottet a déjà été relevée par de nombreux critiques. Mais elle n’avait encore jamais fait l’objet d’une analyse spécifique. Cette thèse de Ludivine Moulière, rédigée sous la direction d’Isabelle Chol, au sein du laboratoire Arts-Langage / Transitions et Relations de l’Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, et intitulée Le Poète tardif, mélancolie, vieillesse et poétique du déclin dans l’œuvre de Philippe Jaccottet, entreprend de combler cette lacune en analysant, dans l’œuvre poétique et critique, les représentations de la vieillesse. Pour ce faire, comme y invite la théorie humorale exposée dans Saturne et la mélancolie (Klibansky, Panofsky, Saxl), le vieillir a été mis en lien avec la mélancolie, comprise dans plusieurs de ses acceptions. Ordonnant d’abord l’imaginaire de l’œuvre à la lumière de l’iconologie mélancolique, sont exposés les liens qu’entretient la représentation des éléments avec celles des âges de la vie, des saisons et des tempéraments. Cela permet de dégager l’humeur mélancolique qui informe la perception du monde en une structure bipolaire ou antithétique. Cette approche iconologique et phénoménologique laisse ensuite la place à une approche plus historique et sociologique. L’analyse des représentations de l’urbain et du jardin montre que la nostalgie, en contredisant l’héritage des Lumières et son idéal progressiste, donne au mouvement de l’histoire la forme d’un déclin graduel, qui rapproche l’historiographie jaccottéenne de l’historiographie romantique. Enfin, le commentaire de la poétique ou de la « poéthique » (Pinson) de Philippe Jaccottet montre de quelle manière l’écriture est infléchie par l’expérience du temps et de la vieillesse. La figuration du poète en « grave vieillard falcifère » (Steinmetz) s’avère ainsi participer d’une conversion axiologique à la fois de la vieillesse et de la mélancolie, en en faisant d’une part la condition d’une aspiration vers l’infini et d’un retour vers la finitude, et d’autre part le principe d’élaboration de l’éthopée jaccottéenne aussi bien que l’aboutissement de la quête lyrique de son identité. / Many critics have already noticed the omnipresence of the theme of old age in Philippe Jaccottet’s work, yet it has never been the object of a specific analysis. Ludivine Moulière’s thesis, entitled The Late Poet, Melancholy, Old Age and Poetic of Decline, written under the direction of Isabelle Chol at the laboratory Arts-Language / Transitions and Relationships of the University of Pau, fills this gap by analyzing the representations of old age within poetic and critical works. Ageing is linked to melancholy as understood in several of its meanings, along the lines of humoral theory as developed in Saturn and Melancholy (Klibansky, Panofsky, Saxl). Firstly, the work’s imaginative realm is organized through the melancholic iconology model in order to show relationships between the representation of the elements and the ages of life, seasons and temperaments. As a result, a melancholic mood is shown to shape perception into a bipolar or antithetic structure. This iconological and phenomenological approach is followed by a more historical and sociological one. The analysis of the representations of urbanity and gardens shows that nostalgia gives the form of a gradual decline to the movement of history, unlike the Enlightenment Legacy and its idea of progress, bringing Jaccottet’s historiography closer to romantic historiography. Finally, the commentary on Jaccottet’s poetic or « po-ethic » (Pinson) shows how his writing is tempered by experience of time and old age. The image of the poet as a « grave old man carrying a sickle » (Steinmetz) proves to fall within an axiological conversion of both old age and melancholy making it, on the one hand, the condition of an aspiration towards infinity and a return to finitude, and on the other hand the elaboration of the Jaccottean ethopoeia as well as the outcome of the lyrical quest for his identity.