This seminar is organized by four integrated thematic modules:

  • Module 1: The Language of Aging (Weeks 1-3)
  • Module 2: The Aging Self (Weeks 4-6)
  • Module 3: Pathologies of Aging (Weeks 7-8)
  • Module 4: Living Assisted (Weeks 9-12)

Week 1: What is it to grow old?

Primary:

  • Applewhite, “Aging/HealingPreview the document” (poem), The South Atlantic Quarterly 103, no. 1 (2004): 101-109.

Critical:

  • Various authors, “Age Studies: Credos, Manifestos, Reflections from Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1 (2014)
    • pick a few and explore your interests
  • Charise and Eginton, “Arts and the Aging Mind”, from The Wiley Handbook on the Aging Mind and Brain, First Edition. Eds. Matthew Rizzo, Steven Anderson, and Bernd Fritzsch. John Wiley & Sons, April 2018. 78-99.

OPTIONAL:

Week 2: The Language of Aging

Primary:

  • King Lear (pp.1-72, up to Act III Scene 2)

Critical:

  • Woodward, “Introduction” (FA)

OPTIONAL:

Week 3: The Language of Aging, cont.

Primary:

  • King Lear (pp.73-140, Act III Scene 2 to end);

Critical:

  • Gullette (FA)

OPTIONAL:

  • Film: Baghban (The Gardener, 2003) [Hindi; link to movie with English subtitles]
  • South Korea: Suicide Nation (2015)
    • A 25-minute documentary that chronicles the rise of suicide among older persons–and other age groups–in South Korea. If you choose to watch, be sure to watch right until the end where a surprising, arts-oriented initiative is suggested as a possible therapeutic intervention for suicide (and therefore an interesting resonance with our reading of King Lear, especially Gloucester’s agony in Act 4).

Week 4: Aging, Selfhood, and Confronting Decline

Primary:

Critical:

  • Russo (FA)

OPTIONAL: 

Week 5: Age, Race, and the Burden of Identity

Primary:

Critical:

  • Brennan (FA)

OPTIONAL:

Week 6: Special Guest Visit by Hartley Jafine, Applied Theatre and Healthcare Facilitator (McMaster University)

Week 7: Narratives of Dementia (I)

Primary:

  • Ignatieff, Scar Tissue (1-108)

Critical:

  • Cole (FA)
  • Fuchs (FA)

OPTIONAL:

Week 8: Narratives of Dementia (II)

Primary:

Ignatieff, Scar Tissue (109-198)

Critical:

Basting, Forget Memory

OPTIONAL:

Week 9: Technologies of Intergeneration: From Anti-Aging to Anti-Ageism

Critical:

  • Woodward, “Inventing” (FA)
  • Sobchack (FA)

Creative:

Chang, “My Father Says”Preview the document (Q) + class choice! Pick from the following:

OPTIONAL: 

Week 10: In-class film screening, Robot and Frank (2012)

REQUIRED: 

Week 11: Healing Machines? Posthuman Aging

Critical:

Creative:

OPTIONAL

Videos:

Week 12: Final Project Showcase: What is it to grow old?

  •  Final Project Due Monday December 3rd