Across more than 30 chapters spanning migration, queerness, and climate change, this handbook captures how the interdisciplinary and intersectional endeavor of Age(ing) studies has shaped contemporary literary and film studies. In the early 21st century, the literary study of age and ageing in its cultural context has 'come of age': it has come to supplement and challenge a public discourse on ageing seen mainly as a political and demographic 'problem' in many countries of the world. Following a tripartite structure, it looks first at literary and film genres and how they have been shaped by knowledge about age and ageing, incorporating both narrative genres as well as poetry, drama and imagery. The second section includes chapters on key themes and concepts in Age(ing) Studies with examples from film and literature. The third section brings together case studies focussing on individual artists, national traditions and global ageing.
Containing original contributions by pioneers in the field as well as new scholars from across the globe, it brings together current scholarship on ageing in literary and film studies, and offers new directions and perspectives.
This handbook is nothing but foundational for age and ageing studies. Taking stock of 30 years of research, it offers an invaluable state of the art of the discipline with a comprehensive section on genre, and a finely curated segment on themes and concepts. The handbook also manages to make space for what is at the core of humanities-based research, namely in-depth case studies of singular works of art. I am particularly pleased to see an inclusion of non-Western perspectives throughout the handbook. This book is a must-read.