Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:39:16.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alford, Edna (1981). A Sleep Full of Dreams. Lantzville, B.C.: Oolichan Books.Google Scholar
Amis, Kingsley (1976). Ending Up. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Anderson, Jessica (1978, rpt. 1984). Tirra Lirra by the River. Ringwood: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bailey, Paul (1967). At the Jerusalem. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Bellow, Saul (1969). Mr. Sammler's Planet. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Bianchi, Eugene (1982). Aging as a Spiritual Journey. New York: Crossroad.Google Scholar
Buss, Helen (1985). Mother and Daughter Relationships in Margaret Laurence. Victoria: English Literary Studies.Google Scholar
Butler, Robert N. (1963). The Life Review. Psychiatry, 26, 65–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cole, Thomas R. (1984). Aging, Meaning, and Well-Being: Musings of a Cultural Historian. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 19, 329–336.Google Scholar
Downing, Christine (1981). Your Old Men Shall Dream Dreams. In Staude, J-R (Ed.), Wisdom and Age (pp. 169–186). Berkeley: Ross.Google Scholar
Erikson, Erik H. (1968). Identity, Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Erikson, Erik H., Erikson, Joan M., & Kivnick, Helen (1986). Vital Involvement In Old Age. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Gadow, Sally (1983). Frailty and Strengm: The Dialectic in Aging. The Gerontologist 23, 144–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, B.S. (1971, rpt. 1986). House Mother Normal. New York: New Directions.Google Scholar
Jolley, Elizabeth (1983). Mr. Scobie's Riddle. Ringwood: Penguin.Google Scholar
Laurence, Margaret (1964). The Stone Angel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.Google Scholar
Laurence, Margaret (1969). Ten Years' Sentences. Canadian Literature, 41, 10–16.Google Scholar
Laurence, Margaret (1984). My Final Hour. Canadian Literature, 100, 187–197.Google Scholar
Manning, Gerald F. (1987). Sunsets and Sunrises: Nursing Home as Microcosm in Memento Mori and Mr. Scobie's Riddle. A Review of International English Literature, 18(2), 27–43.Google Scholar
Mitchell, W.O. (1962, rpt. 1983). The Kite. Toronto: Bantam.Google Scholar
Olsen, Tillie (1986). Tell Me a Riddle. In Rooke, Constance (Ed.), Night Light: Stories of Aging (pp. 97–132). Toronto: Oxford.Google Scholar
Sarton, May (1973). As We Are Now. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Spark, Muriel (1959). Memento Mori. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Taylor, Elizabeth (1971). Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. London: Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar
Washbourne, Penelope (1977). Becoming Woman. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Whitehead, Evelyn (1981). Religious Images of Aging: An Examination of Themes in Contemporary Christian Thought. In C. and LeFevre, P. (Eds.) Aging and the Human Spirit (pp. 56–67). Chicago: Exploration Press.Google Scholar