A Guide to Humanistic Studies in Aging: What Does It Mean to Grow Old? (Hardcover)

Introduction: The Humanistic Study of Aging Past and Present, or Why Gerontology Still Needs Interpretive Inquiry
Part I: Disciplinary Perspectives
Chapter 1. The History of Aging and Old Age in "Western" Cultures
Chapter 2. Resilience and Creativity in Aging: The Realms of Silver
Chapter 3. Literary Texts and Literary Critics Team Up Against Agism
Chapter 4. Philosophy of Aging, Time, and Finitude
Chapter 5. Aging in World Religions: An Overview
Part II: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Chapter 6. The Value and Meaning of Friendship in Later Life
Chapter 7. Encountering the Numinous: Relationality, the Arts, and Religion in Later Life
Chapter 8. Creativity and Aging: Psychological Growth, Health, and Well-Being
Chapter 9. The Five People You Meet in Retirement
Chapter 10. The Age of Reflexive Longevity: How the Clinic and Changing Expectations of the Life Course are Reshaping Old Age
Chapter 11. Ethics and Aging, Retrospectively and Prospectively
Part III: Age Studies in the Public Sphere
Chapter 12. Age, Meaning, and Place: Cultural Narratives and Retirement Communities
Chapter 13. Old Age and Globalization
Chapter 14. Agism and Social Change: The New Regime of Decline
Part IV: Personal Perspectives
Chapter 15. Treadmilling to the Far Side: An Informal Guide to Coming of Age with Mortality
Chapter 16. The Experience of Aging in Feature-Length Films: A Selected and Annotated Filmography
Index