Toward a poetics of aging: The links between literature and life

Inquiries concerning the nature of ‘biographical aging’ within the emerging field of ‘narrative gerontology’ have pointed to the need for a detailed consideration of the parallels between lived texts and literary ones. This article draws on a number of such parallels in order to outline what might be called apoeticsof aging. The central proposal is organized around 3 key concepts: narrative imagination, narrative identity, and narrative environment. The article concludes by speculating on some of the applications of the proposal in relation to growing old, as opposed to merely getting old. (Aging, Narrative, Gerontology, Poetics, Imagination)

Published online: 02 February 2005
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.14.2.02ran