Queering 'Successful Ageing', Dementia and Alzheimer's Research
2016 (English)In: Body & Society, ISSN 1357-034X, E-ISSN 1460-3632, Vol. 22, no 3, p. 77-102Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Contributing to both ageing research and queer-feminist scholarship, this article introduces feminist philosopher Margrit Shildricks queer notion of the monstrous to the subject of ageing and the issue of dealing with frailty within ageing research. The monstrous, as a norm-critical notion, takes as its point of departure that we are always already monstrous, meaning that the western ideal of well-ordered, independent, unleaky, rational embodied subjects is impossible to achieve. From this starting point the normalizing and optimizing strategies of ageing research - here exemplified through the concept of successful ageing and the treatment of Alzheimers disease - can be problematized. The notion of the monstrous instead suggests a view on ageing and monstrous embodiment which provides room for other, different ways of being recognized as an embodied subject, and for dealing with difference, vulnerability and frailty.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London, England: Sage Publications, 2016. Vol. 22, no 3, p. 77-102
Keywords [en]
ageing, dementia, difference, embodiment, ethics, feminist theory, monstrous
National Category
Cultural Studies
Research subject
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-75541DOI: 10.1177/1357034X16649243ISI: 000382677600004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-75541DiVA, id: diva2:1368614
Note
Funding Agency: European Neuroscience and Society Network - European Science Foundation (ESF)
2019-11-072019-11-072019-11-11Bibliographically approved