Global Aging - Cultural and Literary Perspectives
「文学と文化におけるグローバルエイジング」
My research on "aging" dates back to the mid-nineties, when I held a position at Tübingen University (Germany) teaching "Comparative Literature". Recently, I have been co-operating mostly with the Center for Global Aging - Tsukuba (CGAT) / 筑波大学グローバルエイジングセンター(CGAT) . At the 1st and at the 2nd "Conference on Global Aging" at Tsukuba University in 2014, I presented two papers on the following topics:
1. Towards a Cultural Gerontology
Although gerontology has been a wide-spread research topic in such academic disciplines as medicine, psychology and sociology, so far there has been very little research in the discourses of the humanities: for example literature, the arts, and philosophy. In the natural and social sciences researchers are mostly focusing on the problems that arise from old age in individuals or from a growing population of elderly citizens in a given society, in other words they see the problems and stress the “deficiency” in the elderly person as opposed to the norm setting middle-aged person.
While historical research is interested in an accurate description of what they define as reality, the discourses of the humanities, literature, the arts, and philosophy are also intrigued by the way artists and thinkers are envisioning old age from a much more arbitrary point of view. This does not only allow these researchers to analyze conceptualizations of “old age” but also to open new horizons in the gerontological discourses. This paper gives an overview of questions, tendencies, and perspectives and calls for the establishment of a systematic “cultural gerontology”.
2. Towards an Aesthetic of Aging
In the past, researchers of literature, philosophy, and the arts had little to say about the phenomena of growing old. In spite of the fact that again and again there have been attempts by the writers and artists themselves to transform the experience of growing old into literary texts and works of art. Although most of these texts, especially the philosophical ones, try to grapple with the burden of growing old and to ascribe meaning to this seemingly meaningless demise, the attempt to grasp old age and the aging process aesthetically from within, to fathom its dimensions and express it in works of art remained a rare phenomenon. The enormous increase in longevity and consequently in the percentage of aged people in recent decades has led to the tentative formation of a new field, an “aesthetic of old age”, a new mode of perception and creativity, created by the aged for the aged.
This research contributes to the systematic analysis of aesthetic perceptions of aging and old-age experience, still to be established in the humanities; it pays due tribute to the self-perception by the aged themselves.
Relevant Publications:
Herrad Heselhaus (2010): Encountering Poems. Giuseppe Ungaretti – Paul Celan, in: Studies in Language and Literature (Literature Bulletin), Doctoral Program in Literature and Linguistics, Tsukuba University, vol. 58, pp. 61-122.
Herrad Heselhaus (2008): The Time of Translation – Walter Benjamin’s Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers, in: Studies in Literature and Language (Literature Bulletin), Doctoral Program in Literature and Linguistics, Tsukuba University, vol. 54, pp. 83-104.
Herrad Heselhaus (2007): Sentenced to Life. Autobiography and Aging, in: Akyildiz, O. (ed.): Autobiographical Themes in Turkish Literature. Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, (Würzburg: Ergon), pp. 51-63.
Herrad Heselhaus (2004): La Deuxième Mort. Simone de Beauvoirs La Vieillesse zwischen Feminismus und Existentialismus, in: Blasberg/Deiters (ed.): Denken/Schreiben (in) der Krise – Existentialismus und Literatur (St. Ingbert: Roehrig), pp.293-310.
Herrad Heselhaus (2004): Vom Unbehagen in der Zeit. Zeiterfahrung des Menschen bei Simone de Beauvoir und Arthur Schnitzler, in: Inoue, S./Ueda, K.(ed.): Über die Grenzen hinweg, (Munich: iudicium), pp. 21-42.
Herrad Heselhaus (2003): Hesses Demian. Adoleszenz als Utopie“, in: Blasberg, C.(ed.): Hermann Hesse 1877-1962-2002, (Tübingen: Attempto), pp. 27-42.
Herrad Heselhaus (2003): So alt und doch so neu. Romano Guardinis Ethik der Lebensalter, in: Casper, S. (ed.): Alter (Tübingen: Konkursbuch), pp.53-68.
「文学と文化におけるグローバルエイジング」
My research on "aging" dates back to the mid-nineties, when I held a position at Tübingen University (Germany) teaching "Comparative Literature". Recently, I have been co-operating mostly with the Center for Global Aging - Tsukuba (CGAT) / 筑波大学グローバルエイジングセンター(CGAT) . At the 1st and at the 2nd "Conference on Global Aging" at Tsukuba University in 2014, I presented two papers on the following topics:
1. Towards a Cultural Gerontology
Although gerontology has been a wide-spread research topic in such academic disciplines as medicine, psychology and sociology, so far there has been very little research in the discourses of the humanities: for example literature, the arts, and philosophy. In the natural and social sciences researchers are mostly focusing on the problems that arise from old age in individuals or from a growing population of elderly citizens in a given society, in other words they see the problems and stress the “deficiency” in the elderly person as opposed to the norm setting middle-aged person.
While historical research is interested in an accurate description of what they define as reality, the discourses of the humanities, literature, the arts, and philosophy are also intrigued by the way artists and thinkers are envisioning old age from a much more arbitrary point of view. This does not only allow these researchers to analyze conceptualizations of “old age” but also to open new horizons in the gerontological discourses. This paper gives an overview of questions, tendencies, and perspectives and calls for the establishment of a systematic “cultural gerontology”.
2. Towards an Aesthetic of Aging
In the past, researchers of literature, philosophy, and the arts had little to say about the phenomena of growing old. In spite of the fact that again and again there have been attempts by the writers and artists themselves to transform the experience of growing old into literary texts and works of art. Although most of these texts, especially the philosophical ones, try to grapple with the burden of growing old and to ascribe meaning to this seemingly meaningless demise, the attempt to grasp old age and the aging process aesthetically from within, to fathom its dimensions and express it in works of art remained a rare phenomenon. The enormous increase in longevity and consequently in the percentage of aged people in recent decades has led to the tentative formation of a new field, an “aesthetic of old age”, a new mode of perception and creativity, created by the aged for the aged.
This research contributes to the systematic analysis of aesthetic perceptions of aging and old-age experience, still to be established in the humanities; it pays due tribute to the self-perception by the aged themselves.
Relevant Publications:
Herrad Heselhaus (2010): Encountering Poems. Giuseppe Ungaretti – Paul Celan, in: Studies in Language and Literature (Literature Bulletin), Doctoral Program in Literature and Linguistics, Tsukuba University, vol. 58, pp. 61-122.
Herrad Heselhaus (2008): The Time of Translation – Walter Benjamin’s Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers, in: Studies in Literature and Language (Literature Bulletin), Doctoral Program in Literature and Linguistics, Tsukuba University, vol. 54, pp. 83-104.
Herrad Heselhaus (2007): Sentenced to Life. Autobiography and Aging, in: Akyildiz, O. (ed.): Autobiographical Themes in Turkish Literature. Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, (Würzburg: Ergon), pp. 51-63.
Herrad Heselhaus (2004): La Deuxième Mort. Simone de Beauvoirs La Vieillesse zwischen Feminismus und Existentialismus, in: Blasberg/Deiters (ed.): Denken/Schreiben (in) der Krise – Existentialismus und Literatur (St. Ingbert: Roehrig), pp.293-310.
Herrad Heselhaus (2004): Vom Unbehagen in der Zeit. Zeiterfahrung des Menschen bei Simone de Beauvoir und Arthur Schnitzler, in: Inoue, S./Ueda, K.(ed.): Über die Grenzen hinweg, (Munich: iudicium), pp. 21-42.
Herrad Heselhaus (2003): Hesses Demian. Adoleszenz als Utopie“, in: Blasberg, C.(ed.): Hermann Hesse 1877-1962-2002, (Tübingen: Attempto), pp. 27-42.
Herrad Heselhaus (2003): So alt und doch so neu. Romano Guardinis Ethik der Lebensalter, in: Casper, S. (ed.): Alter (Tübingen: Konkursbuch), pp.53-68.