1st Edition

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Aging in Nineteenth-Century Culture

Edited By Anne-Julia Zwierlein, Katharina Boehm, Anna Farkas Copyright 2014
266 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

274 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

266 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This essay collection develops new perspectives on constructions of old age in literary, legal, scientific and periodical cultures of the nineteenth century. Rigorously interdisciplinary, the book places leading researchers of old age in nineteenth-century literature in dialogue with experts from the fields of cultural, legal and social history. It revisits the origins of many modern debates... Read more

Introduction Katharina Boehm, Anna Farkas and Anne-Julia Zwierlein Part I. Science, Social Reform, and the Aging Body 1. A Respectful Challenge to the Nineteenth-Century’s View of Itself: An Argument for the Early Modern Medicalization of Old Age Lynn A. Botelho 2. "Exhausting the powers of life": Aging, Energy and Productivity in Nineteenth-Century Scientific and Literary Discourses Anne-Julia Zwierlein 3. Gender Perspectives on the Elderly in Town and Countryside in Victorian England Nigel Goose 4. The Unnatural Youth of the Old "New Woman" Teresa Mangum Part II. Intergenerational Exchanges 5. Transatlanticism and the Old Indian: Old Age and Cross-Racial Mentorship in Narratives of National Belonging Katharina Boehm 6. Freedom of Testation in Victorian England Rebecca Probert 7. "Senile" Sexuality Karen Chase 8. "Are You Learning to Grow Old?": "Aging Well" with the Help of The Girl’s Own Paper, 1880 to 1900 Jochen Petzold Part III. Transformations and Appropriations of Victorian Old Age 9. Inventing the "Aging" Shakespeare in the Nineteenth Century: A Counterfactual Reading Gordon McMullan 10. Active Aging in the Community: Laughing at/ Thinking about Victorian Senescence in Arnold Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale and its Theatrical Afterlife David Amigoni 11. Old Age and the Great War: J. M. Barrie’s Plays about the British Home Front Anna Farkas 12. The Double Standard of Aging: On Missing Stendhal in England Helen Small Epilogue Pat Thane

Biography

Katharina Boehm is Assistant Professor of English Literature at Regensburg University, Germany.

Anna Farkas is Assistant Professor of English Literature at Regensburg University, Germany.

Anne-Julia Zwierlein holds the Chair of English Literary and Cultural Studies at Regensburg University, Germany.