Age, gender, narratives, and masquerades. [References]

(from the journal abstract) A shared feature of contemporary feminism and critical gerontology has been an attempted rapprochement between inequality in terms of social structure and the experience of identity under oppressive social conditions. For gerontology, this has meant the structural and personal implications of ageing in an ageist society. Narrative and masquerade have both been used as metaphors to examine strategies deployed in the management of an ageing, gendered self. They allow, it is argued, a critical space to arise between hidden aspects of identity and appearances, but the way that these concepts have been handled varies significantly between social theorists. Both narrative and masquerade may hold the danger of becoming inward-looking, and thus solipsistic, ceasing to be part of an interactive, dialogical process and end up as fixed, yet ungrounded psychic positions. The implications for a critical approach that reaches beyond the academy are considerable, and the paper ends with a discussion of the possibilities for solidarity across narrative boundaries presented by adult ageing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)