Dementia, Ageism, and the Limits of Critique in Thea Astley's Satire

Yet it would not be until the later part of the twentieth century that writers like Thea Astley and Elizabeth Jolley, themselves by that time past fifty, would explore how old age and conditions like dementia are understood in contemporary Australian culture through limiting narratives of decline. S...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL 2022-03, Vol.22 (2), p.1-8
Main Author: Vickery, Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age discrimination
Aging
Attitudes
Australian culture
Australian literature
Dementia
Humor
Novels
Older people
Social norms
Society
Women
Writing
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Summary:Yet it would not be until the later part of the twentieth century that writers like Thea Astley and Elizabeth Jolley, themselves by that time past fifty, would explore how old age and conditions like dementia are understood in contemporary Australian culture through limiting narratives of decline. Significantly, Astley and Jolley turned to literary modes like satire in later works such as Coda (Astley 1994) and Mr Scobie 's Riddle (Jolley 1983) to depict the negative impact of cultural attitudes towards the elderly. [...]as Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai suggest, it can assist in "test[ing] or figur[ing] out what it means to say 'us'"(235). Susan Lever suggests that besides social subjugation, Astley also located women's limitations in their lack of control over their own bodies.
ISSN:1447-8986