The Ages of Life : Living and Aging in Conflict?

The binary construction of »young« and »old«, which is based on a biogerontological model of aging as decline, can be redefined as the ambiguity of aging from a cultural studies perspective. This concept enables an analysis of the social functions of images of aging with the aim of providing a basis for interdisciplinary exchange on gerontological research. The articles in this publication conceive the relationship between living and aging as a productive antagonism which focuses on the interplay between continuity and change as a marker of life course identity: aging and growing older are processes which cannot be reduced to the chronology of years but which are shaped by the individual's interaction with the changing circumstances of life. Age,Aging,Life Course,Identity,Cultural Gerontology,Concepts of Time,Gender,Aging Studies,Literature,Cultural Studies,American Studies,Literary Studies Inhalt The Ages of Life: Living and Aging in Conflict? METHODS AND APPROACHES Positive Aging in an Age of Neo-liberalism Old Wine in New Bottles? Celebrating or Denying Age? On Cultural Studies as an Analytical Approach in Gerontology Age-Related Disability: Believing is Seeing is Experiencing Aged by Law: Ages of Life in Austrian Law REPRESENTATIONS OF AGES OF LIFE IN MEDIA AND ART “The Journey into the Land of Forgetfulness” Metaphors of Aging and Dementia in Media Representation of Old Age in Media Fear of Aging or Cult of Youth? Age Images in Advertising: An Art-Historical Analysis of Advertisement Images in the Austrian Province of Styria Of Mimicry and Age Fashion Ambivalences of the Young-Old REPRESENTATION OF AGES OF LIFE IN LITERATURE The Irony of the Ages of Life Etienne Pasquier’s Les Jeus Poetiques (1610) Past the Mirror of Victorian Aging and Beyond: Recurring Transatlantic Archetypes of the Aged Beyond Dis-Ease Positive Female Aging against the Cult of Invalidism in Ellen Glasgow’s Last Two Novels Growing Old and Searching for Identity in Anne Tyler’s Noah’s Compass (2009) and Umberto Eco’s The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2004): A Contemporary Semantics of Aging Man, Interrupted Intersections of Masculinity, Disability, and Old Age in John Coetzee’s Slow Man Too Old To Rock? Rushdie’s Vina Apsara “Surging into Her Mid-Forties Full of Beauty and Courage” Contributors

The binary construction of »young« and »old«, which is based on a biogerontological model of aging as decline, can be redefined as the ambiguity of aging from a cultural studies perspective. This concept enables an analysis of the social functions of images of aging with the aim of providing a basis for interdisciplinary exchange on gerontological research.The articles in this publication conceive the relationship between living and aging as a productive antagonism which focuses on the interplay between continuity and change as a marker of life course identity: aging and growing older are processes which cannot be reduced to the chronology of years but which are shaped by the individual's interaction with the changing circumstances of life.

Biographical note: Ulla Kriebernegg (Dr.) is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Inter-American Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. Her research interests include North American Literature and Cultural Studies, Interculturality and Migration Studies, Inter-American Studies, Transatlantic Educational Cooperation, and Age/Aging Studies. Roberta Maierhofer (Dr.) is the Director of and Professor at the Center for Inter-American Studies at the University of Graz, Austria, and adjunct professor at Binghamton University, NY, USA. Her research focuses on American Literature and Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Transatlantic Cooperation in Education, Inter-American Studies and Age/Aging Studies Long description: CDU und SPD schrumpfen und altern unaufhaltsam. Im Jahr 2011 war nahezu die Hälfte aller Mitglieder beider Parteien über 60 Jahre alt. Folgt dieser mächtigen Zahl eine Macht der Älteren? Bettina Munimus untersucht den altersstrukturellen Wandel aus drei Perspektiven: Senioren als Mandatsträger und Funktionäre, als Mitglieder der parteieigenen Seniorenorganisationen und als engagierte Mitglieder der Partizipationskohorten der 1960er/1970er Jahre an der Parteibasis. Die Betrachtung mündet in die These einer antizipierten Macht der Älteren "Living and aging as a productive antagonism. Aging and growing older are processes which cannot be reduced to the chronology of years but which are shaped by the individual's interaction with the changing circumstances of life."--Publishers website ; Biographical note: Bettina Munimus (Dr. rer. pol.) hat in Kassel und Göttingen promoviert. Ihr Forschungsschwerpunkt ist die Parteien- und Verbändeforschung in der alternden Gesellschaft