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Fiction and Aging: “Ripeness is All”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

Gerald F. Manning
Gerald F. Manning
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
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Abstract

In response to recent claims for the role of the humanities in understanding aging, this paper identifies certain works of fiction which illustrate and dramatize such concepts as life review and integrity. In its consideration of novels by Muriel Spark, Tillie Olsen, Margaret Laurence, and Jessica Anderson, the essay argues that complex fiction about old persons refuses to over-simplify or sentimentalize the problems of aging but often finds poetic and symbolic means of affirming the positive values of life review and spiritual growth at the end of life's journey.

Résumé

En réponse aux théories avancées récemment proposant que l'étude des lettres nous aide à mieux comprendre le phénomène qu'est le vieillissement, cette communication attire l'attention sur certains ouvrages littéraires qui mettent en lumière des concepts tels que l'intégrité et le retour psychologique au passé. Prenant par exemple les romans de Muriel Spark, Tillie Olsen, Margaret Laurence et Jessica Anderson, mon exposé soutient que le roman à intrigue bien développé qui met en scène des protagonistes âgés ne simplifie jamais les problèmes du vieillissement; de plus, je suggère que ce genre d'ouvrage, d'une façon poétique et symbolique, témoigne des avantages indéniables qu'offre la recherche du passé et de la croissance spirituelle que l'individu pourrait connaître à la fin de sa vie.

Keywords

agingliteraturefictionlife reviewspirituality.
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Summer/été 1989 , pp. 157 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1989

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