Post by HLTD51 student KRIS In Teresa Brennan’s essay, Social Physics (in Woodward’s Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations), she reveals a (somewhat unsettling) analogy of aging made by Sigmund Freud. Freud, the renowned founder of psychoanalysis, described the aging process as the slow formation of an “inorganic crust” which consumes the body over time. This comparison is mirrored… Read More
Post by HLTD51 student KAKhalfan Ageism is the process whereby older adults are viewed from a negative perspective regarding all the different attributes they possess. Whether these attributes are psychological, social or biological, the negative perceptions remain constant and present within our society. For example, from an ageist perspective “older adults are viewed, among others, as… Read More
Podcast by HLTD51 student Teaformeplease In this podcast, I examine how Philip Larkin’s poem The Old Fools (read or listen) critiques the concept of age and aging as decline. Despite the pessimism of its opening stanza, Larkin’s poem ultimately persuades us to think of aging along the lines of what age critics like Mary Russo call… Read More
By HLTD51 student AMVB Ageism? What in the world is ageism? I’m aware that some people aren’t very fond of aging, but before this course I didn’t know that this issue was so prevalent. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of this word, “ageism,” until I started to notice its frequent appearance in the course… Read More
By HLTD51 student FC As I was reflecting on Margaret Gullette’s essay “The Other End of the Fashion Cycle: Practicing Loss, Learning Decline”, in Woodward’s collection Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations, I can recall in the past watching an episode of an old television show called “What Not To Wear” (note: I rarely watch… Read More
This is an abridged version of the full instructions posted on Quercus. See below for an overview of the purpose and learning objectives associated with composing Digital Posts for HLTD51, Aging and the Arts. * * * One objective of this seminar is to practice composing public-facing writing as… Read More