Gerontology and literature

Question 1

Gerontology

Answer 1

The study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging

Question 2

Coined by

Answer 2

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903.

Question 3

Grown in which century?

Answer 3

Gerontology / twentieth century.
It includes researchers and practitioners in the fields of biology, nursing, medicine, social work, psychology, sociology, economy and anthropology.

Question 4

Gerontology purpose:

Answer 4

1- Understanding what aging is.
2- Helping people to maximize their function.
3- Achieving highest quality of life.
4- “Revolution of longevity” people would live longer (Under God’s will).

Question 5

Sub-fields of Gerontology:

Answer 5

Biogerontology: is the study of biological aging, including its causes, effects, mechanisms, and evolutionary history.
Social gerontology: responsible for the awareness, study and development of older people’s wider causes.
Environmental gerontology: Seeks to improve the interaction between elderly people and their physical and social environments.

Question 6

Literature and Gerontology

Answer 6

the interpretation of ageing and creativity through close readings of literary texts”.

Question 7

Literary Gerontology contribution:

Answer 7

1- Showing how literature contribute upon aging.
2- Showing the effect of aging upon creative writers.
3- Humanistic approaches to literature and aging.
4- Exploring psychoanalytic on the literary works.
5- Applications gerontological theories about autobiography, life review and midlife transitions.

Question 8

Gerontological imagination:

Answer 8

“It is an awareness of the process of aging that enables one to understand the scientific contributions of a variety of researchers studying aging.”

Question 9

Key tenets of Gerontological imagination:

Answer 9

Aging and causality: Aging is not a cause of all age-related phenomena.
Aging as multifaceted change: Aging involves biological, psychological, and social changes in individuals in different rates.
Aging and life-course analysis: Aging is a lifelong process, and using a life-course perspective helps advance the scientific study of aging.
Ageing and ageism.

Question 10

How can literature explain aging?

Answer 10

Literature has diverse insights into aging because it introduces the element of fiction.
Unlike narrative gerontology, literature invites the reader into the story; it “appeals to our minds and imaginative abilities” (22).

Question 11

Robert Browning

Answer 11

Victorian poet who is known for his use of ‘dramatic monologue.’
often set his poems in the Renaissance period, dealt with the psyche of those characters

Question 12

The Statue and the Bust

Answer 12

set in Florence, exactly in the Riccardi palace.
story of the Lady who married the head of the Riccardi family, and Duke Ferdinand