Growing Old in a Better World: Age and Ageing in the Utopian Imagination (Routledge Studies in Cultural History) - Hardcover

Troschitz, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1032806664 ISBN 13: 9781032806662

Publisher: Routledge, 2024

Synopsis

As utopias question social ills and express human wants and unfulfilled dreams, they offer insights into the problems, desires and ideals of a certain time. This book uses this lens to examine cultural representations of ageing and old age in utopian writings from the Renaissance till today.

The individual chapters offer detailed analyses and interpretations of numerous utopias from Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) to contemporary science fiction. Through close readings, the book explores age-related fears and ideals and investigates how perceptions of ageing and the life course as well as attitudes towards older people have developed over the centuries. Covering a large time span and a broad range of different utopias, the book identifies long-term developments and also puts certain dreams such as that of ever-lasting youth into a wider perspective. It thus enriches both our understanding of the cultural history of ageing and the history of utopian thought.

The book will appeal to scholars and students from the fields of cultural gerontology and utopian studies, as well as literary studies and cultural history more generally.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Troschitz is a cultural studies scholar whose research focuses on British cultural history, utopian literature and representations of ageing in popular culture. His previous books include Higher Education and the Student: From Welfare State to Neoliberalism (2017) and Age Matters: Cultural Representations and the Politics of Ageing (2020).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032806664
• ISBN 13: 9781032806662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258