REPRESENTATIONS OF AGE

The rapidly growing interdisciplinary field of Age and Aging Studies opens
onto gerontology, sociology, bioethics, anthropology, and a wide range of
approaches springing from the humanities and arts, especially in Europe.
However, as reflected at the recent European Network in Age Studies (ENAS)
conference, the theatrical representation of Age and Aging has just begun to
emerge as a major subject of critical inquiry. The proposed Working Session
seeks a wide range of papers exploring representations, from classic to
contemporary, of Age and Aging in dramatic, theatrical, and cultural
performance. Short performances and videos will also be considered. Building
on the pathbreaking work of Kathleen Woodward, Anne Basting, Thomas Cole,
Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Stephen Katz, Mike Featherstone and Andrew
Wernick, and Valerie Lipscomb, as well as work in several European
languages, the session will raise questions and seek perspectives about
questions such as these:

Is there a dramaturgy of Age?

What are the performative differences between the spectacle of age and the
experience of age?

What emotions and what bodies (and what emotions about the bodies) are
associated with Age and Aging?

Why has the youth/age binary been absent from the identity debates in
theater and performance studies on race, gender, disability, and other
bio-markers of the past decades?

In what ways are ageism and stereotyping factors in theatrical
representations of aging?