"how to dance / sitting down": Aging, Innovation and the Graying of Disability
Journal of Modern Literature
; 45(1):87-102, 2021.
Article
in English
| ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-1613515
ABSTRACT
The topic of aging has been somewhat overlooked, in disability studies, perhaps owing to the adage that "everyone is disabled if they live long enough." If the life course is simply a state of debility, why create a distinct category for bodily and sensory impairment? Disability in old age, I argue, is not a mark of precarity but of capability. The work of writers and artists who continue to experiment formally while becoming increasingly disabled in later years (Beethoven, Henry James, Merce Cunningham) offers an opportunity to complicate "late style" as developed by Theodor Adorno and Edward Said and account for the role of complex embodiment in the production of new work. Finally, I consider Samuel Beckett, whose characters are often aging and disabled and for whom bodily and sensory decline are central to their ability to "go on. "
Literature; Embodiment; Aging; Privatization; Ideology; Frailty; Pandemics; Society; Nursing, homes; Gerontology; Older, people; Medical, supplies; Coronaviruses; Neoliberalism; Bioethics; Disability; Disorders; Equal, rights; COVID-19; Adorno, Theodor, Wiesengrund, (1903-1969); Beckett, Samuel, (1906-1989)
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
ProQuest Central
Language:
English
Journal:
Journal of Modern Literature
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS