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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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'Writing to make ageing new'
— Dutch poets' understanding of late-life creativity | | Author(s) | Aagje Swinnen |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 38, no 3, March 2018 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, March 2018 |
| Pages | pp 543-567 |
| Source | http://www.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Poetry ; Writing ; Netherlands. |
| Annotation | This article presents the results of a study that examines how older professional writers experience and understand creativity in later life, something that is still under-explored In psychological, humanities' and gerontological approaches to ageing and creativity. The study's data-set consists of transcriptions of lengthy interviews conducted in spring 2015 with five Dutch poets aged over 65 who have achieved some eminence in the field. By means of interpretative phenomenological analysis, three superordinate and 12 subordinate themes came to the fore that offer an account of the ideas, thoughts and feelings characteristic of the way these writers perceive the later stages in their career. The first superordinate theme, Securing Sustainable Writing Practices, comprises the subordinate themes of: maintaining continuity in writing approach; drawing on wealth of experience; emancipating from earlier literary conceptions; and reinventing oneself as artist throughout the years. The second superordinate theme, Negotiating the Literary Field, encompasses the following subordinate themes: challenges regarding finding or keeping a publisher in later life; developing self-acceptance and relativising literary awards; handling continuity of reception, or the way literary work is pigeonholed by critics; and staying visible in the literary scene. The third and final superordinate theme, Writing as Art of Living, refers to: not feeling old(er); writing as a practice of good living; writing as a way to recreate what is lost or unknown; and confronting cognitive decline. Together, these superordinate and subordinate themes diversify ideas of late-life creativity that are based on questionable generalising conceptualisations of the psychology of later life and artistic careers. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-180302205 A |
| Classmark | HK6: HKP: 76H |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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