Traces of Aging: Old Age and Memory in Contemporary Narrative

Description

This collection consists of eight essays that examine the way narratives determine our understanding of old age and condition how the experience is lived. The contributors to this volume base their analysis on the concept of "narrative identity" developed by Paul Ricoeur, built upon the idea that fiction makes life, and on his definition of the "trace" as the mark of time. By investigating the traces of aging imprinted in a series of literary and filmic works, they dismantle the narrative of old age as decline and foreclosure to assemble one of transformation and growth. Cover. Traces of Aging Contents Introduction. Literature that Returns to Life and the Mystique of Age Keeping Appointments with the Past. Time, Place, and Narrative Identity in W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz Haunted by a Traumatic Past. Age, Memory, and Narrative Identity in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin “The whole aspect of age is full of possibilities!” Traces of Ageing, Memory, and Sexuality in Daphne du Maurier’s “Don’t Look Now” Ageing, Agency, and Autobiography. Challenging Ricoeur’s Concept of Narrative Identity An Appetite for Life. Narrative, Time, and Identity in Still Mine Memory, Dementia, and Narrative Identity in Alice Munro’s “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” Horror Mortis, Structural Trauma, and Postmodern Parody in Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King Rewriting the Story, Restorying the Self. Doris Lessing’s Experiments in Life-Writing Contributors