大象传媒

Defining Old Age: Literature, Psychology, Law

Professor Stephen Katz (Trent University):

鈥淎ge Crises across the Life Course: Knowledge-Making and Public Texts鈥�

This presentation reviews the knowledge-making roles of public texts and professional literatures in precipitating a modern crisis-laden life-course. It illustrates five examples of textual practices and discourses of age-related life-course crises, drawn from various professional and public literatures, images and media.

Professor George Rousseau (Oxford University):

鈥淣o Late Style, Written out of the Great Tradition, but abundant Ageing and Healthy Old Age: E. M. Forster鈥檚 late Contentments鈥�

This presentation focuses on the English novelist E. M. Forster, who lived to a great age and aged well without subscribing to any medical wisdom along lines of diet, exercise, lifestyle, mental health, or the like. For him all flowed more or less smoothly as he aged, and only one element could have deranged and dragged him down 鈥� the law. But he circumnavigated the legal morass so well that it too conspired, together with his benign genetic pool, to push him onwards towards centenarian status. How did he do it?

Dr Charlotte Lee (University of Cambridge):

鈥淟earning to Listen to the Third and Fourth Age: How Literature can Help the Rest of us鈥�

There is a need for reminders to be delivered to the rest of society that old age can be a time of regeneration, creativity and wisdom. In this presentation, some literary demonstrations of this is examined, with a particular focus on Goethe, who produced some of his most innovative work in his late seventies.

Professor Jan Baars (University of Utrecht):

鈥溾�極ld Age鈥� at the Nexus of Age and Social Justice鈥�

As a result of the 20th century institutionalization of the life course the onset of 鈥榦ld age鈥� in Western societies has been defined by law and combined with age-related entitlements. However, rising life expectancies and accelerating technological change have undermined age-based definitions of being 鈥榦ld鈥�. These developments necessitate a rethinking of the project of implementing social justice over the life course, including the recognition of 鈥榦ld age鈥�.

Dr Elizabeth Barry (University of Warwick):

鈥淒ementia, Personhood and the Body-Subject: The Margins of Agency鈥�

This paper considers recent constructions of personhood in advanced old age and dementia in Anglo-American philosophy, from Ronald Dworkin's trenchant essay on the limits of personhood听Life's Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia and Individual Freedom听to Agnieszka Jaworska's work in 'Respecting the Margins of Agency' and elsewhere on the capacity to value in those with dementia.听

Associate Professor Margery Vibe Skagen (University of Bergen):

鈥淩锚verie and Late Writing鈥�

This paper presents one particular strain of inquiry within the research project听Historicizing the ageing self: Literature, Medicine, Psychology, Law.听It focuses on听谤锚惫别谤颈别听as a historically changing psychological concept, as well as on the late kinds of self-writing it has been associated with by French authors including Montaigne, Rousseau and Baudelaire.

Associate Professor Peter Svare Valeur (University of Bergen):

鈥淭hree Approaches to Contingency: Wordsworth, Balzac, Adolf Loos鈥�

This presentation focuses on William Wordsworth鈥檚 鈥淚mmortality Ode鈥� (1804); Honor茅 de Balzac鈥檚 鈥淟e Chef鈥檇鈥櫯搖vre inconnu鈥� (1832); and Adolf Loos鈥檚 鈥淰on einem armen reichen manne鈥� (1900). All in all, they offer different and still popular strategies for coping with the uncontrollableness and vicissitudes of growing old.

Postdoctoral Researcher Catherine Oakley (University of Leeds):

鈥淓ntropy and Atrophy: Ageing and the Conceptual Metaphor of Energy in the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Centuries鈥�

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, old age became a topic of growing concern and new visibility in politics, medicine, economics, and culture. In this presentation an expansive network of discourses related to ageing is traced through an interdisciplinary, cultural materialist approach which draws selectively on a wide range of primary sources, including scientific writing, popular health manuals, journalism, literary fiction, and silent film.

Professor Linda Gr酶ning (University of Bergen), Head Physician Erik R. Hauge (Olaviken Gerontopsychiatric hospital):

鈥淎geing and Criminal Responsibility: Psychiatric and Legal Implications of Age-Related Impairment鈥�

To what extent is it reasonable to hold older persons responsible? When should ageing imply a lack of or reduced criminal capacity, and how should this be evaluated by mental health professionals as well as the courts?

Associate Professor Svein Atle Sk氓lev氓g (University of Bergen):

鈥淚s There an Expiry Date on Responsibility?鈥�

Age and illness has for a long time been part of the discussions on criminal responsibility, as factors potentially excluding responsibility. How and why was age included among the relevant factors for considering responsibility and how and why did it subsequently disappear from the discussions?

Professor Inger Hilde Nordhus (University of Bergen):

鈥淭he Sleep-Wake Cycle in Old Age 鈥� Facts and Metaphors鈥�

As we age, sleep disorders become more common, and even in healthy older adults the circadian rhythms may change and challenge the individual in his or her daily functioning. This presentation focuses on the conception of sleep in older adults, as expressed in facts and commonly used metaphors.

Associate Professor Kjetil Rommetveit (University of Bergen):

鈥淎geing as a Definitional Problem for Socio-Technical Innovation鈥�

This presentation describes and critically assesses how the 鈥榓geing society鈥� as a political challenge increasingly appears as deeply entangled with efforts to make, produce and market more autonomous machines.

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