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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Old-Age Societies—Old-Age Style
- 1 Old-Age Style and Self-Monumentalization in Günter Grass
- 2 Old-Age Style and Self-Healing in Ruth Klüger and Christa Wolf
- 3 Old-Age Style and Self-Transcendence in Martin Walser
- Conclusion: Old-Age Style as Late Style?
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: Old-Age Societies—Old-Age Style
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Old-Age Societies—Old-Age Style
- 1 Old-Age Style and Self-Monumentalization in Günter Grass
- 2 Old-Age Style and Self-Healing in Ruth Klüger and Christa Wolf
- 3 Old-Age Style and Self-Transcendence in Martin Walser
- Conclusion: Old-Age Style as Late Style?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Ach, aber mit Versen ist so wenig getan, wenn man sie früh schreibt. Man sollte warten damit und Sinn und Süßigkeit sammeln ein ganzes Leben lang und ein langes womöglich, und dann, ganz zum Schluß, vielleicht könnte man dann zehn Zeilen schreiben, die gut sind.
[But alas, with poems one accomplishes so little when one writes them early. One should hold off and gather sense and sweetness a whole life long, a long life if possible, and then, right at the end, one could perhaps write ten lines that are good.]
—Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids BriggeIN THEIR LANDMARK REPORT ahead of the 2002 “World Assembly on Ageing,” researchers from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations began by placing the contemporary graying of the world's population in its historical perspective:
Population ageing is unprecedented, without parallel in the history of humanity. Increases in the proportions of older persons (60 years or older) are being accompanied by declines in the proportions of the young (under age 15). By 2050, the number of older persons in the world will exceed the number of young for the first time in history. Moreover, by 1998 this historic reversal in relative proportions of young and old had already taken place in the more developed regions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Aging and Old-Age Style in Günter Grass, Ruth Klüger, Christa Wolf, and Martin WalserThe Mannerism of a Late Period, pp. 1 - 39Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013