Narrating ageing: Deconstructing negative conceptions of old age in four contemporary English novels

Characters in their late sixties, seventies and even eighties have become the main protagonists and narrators in contemporary fiction. Narratives of ageing not only allow the reader to go into deep confines of an ageing protagonist, they also offer a detailed account of how these protagonists as well as the society around them deal with an increasing reality within the Western world, namely, that a demographic change is taking place and, thus, social and individual conceptions related to old age and ageing need to be revised and redefined. Novels such as Pat Barker's The Century's Daughter, Margaret Forster's Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Doris Lessing's The Diaries of Jane Somers and Rose Tremain's The Cupboard invite the reader to explore the ageing process, both at an individual and social level, through the stories their main protagonists narrate to a member of a younger generation. As a human complex process within a broader demographic change, stories of ageing succeed in helping young and old protagonists (and ultimately the reader) to reflect on the ageing process from a multiplicity of perspectives.

► Narratives of ageing have proliferated in contemporary English fiction in the last decades.
► Images of ageing in contemporary fiction invite reflection on the conceptions of old age.
► Within the Western world, the ageing body is disassociated from the benefits of experience.
► Literary narratives allow the reader to understand the ageing process from a multiplicity of perspectives.