Old age and ageing in British and American culture and literature

"Old age and ageing is not simply a fixed biological or chronological process but a complex cultural and social phenomenon. The essays in this volume explore fiction and the arts as sources of information about how artists encounter age(ing) in different epochs and different social and cultural environments. The authors deal with questions of the ageing artist and his or her style, with specific gender problems and the representation of age in popular culture and film. The volume makes no claim to present a definitive analysis of age(ing) but rather attempts to show how fiction and the arts add a further dimension to our understanding of the quality of old age and ageing. The articles in this volume were first presented at a conference of the Centre for British Studies in May 2002 at the University of Bamberg. Christa Jansohn is Professor of British Culture at the University of Bamberg and Director of the Centre for British Studies. "