‘My Body Feels Old’: Seniors’ Discursive Constructions of Aging-as-Disabling
Main Article Content
Keywords
phenomenology, lived experience, discourse
Abstract
Social gerontology and disability studies have made similar but separate arguments for ways to study aging and disability, respectively. This study of interviews with seniors finds that seniors characterize aging as disabling and position both identity constructions as negative. The article argues for the use of disability theory and discourse to examine seniors’ lived experiences.
References
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Shakespeare, T. (2010). The social model of disability. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The Disability Studies Reader (3rd ed.). (pp. 266-273). New York: Routledge.
Siebers, T. (2008). Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
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Whitaker, A. (2010). The body as existential midpoint – the aging and dying body of nursing home residents. Journal of Aging Studies 24(2). 96-104.
Wilson, J.C. and Lewiecki-Wilson, C. (2001). Introduction. In J.C. Wilson and C. Lewiecki-Wilson (Eds.), Embodied rhetorics: Disability in language and culture (pp. 1-26). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Brueggemann, B.J. (1999). Lend me your ear: Rhetorical constructions of deafness. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.
Calasanti, T. M. and Slevin, K.. (2006). Introduction: Age Matters. In T. M. Calasanti and K. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters: realigning feminist thinking (pp. 1-17). New York: Routledge.
Chivers, S. (2011). The silvering screen: Old age and disability in cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Corbin, J. & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Coupland, J. (2009). Discourse, identity and change in mid-to-late life: interdisciplinary perspectives on language and ageing. Ageing and Society, 29(6), 849-61.
Coupland, N., Coupland, J. & Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society, and the elderly: Discourse, identity, and ageing. Oxford: Blackwell.
Davies, B. & Harre, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal of the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43-65.
Davis, L. J. (2010). Constructing normalcy. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The Disability Studies Reader (3rd ed.). (pp. 3-19). New York: Routledge.
De Fina, A., Shiffrin, D. & Bamburg, M. (2006). Introduction. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin, & M. Bamburg (Eds.), Discourse and Identity (pp. 27-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Featherstone, M. & Hepworth, M. (1991). The mask of ageing and the postmodern life course. In M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth, & B. S. Turner (Eds.), The body, social process and cultural theory (pp. 371-389). London: Sage.
Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
Jefferson, G. (1984). Transcript notation. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. ix-xvi). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Linton, S. (1998). Claiming disability: Knowledge and identity. New York: New York University Press.
Nikander, P. (2009). Doing change and continuity: age identity and the micro-macro divide. Ageing & Society, 29(6), 863-881.
Oberg, P. (1996). The absent body – a social gerontological paradox. Ageing and Society, 16(6), 701-719.
Shakespeare, T. (2010). The social model of disability. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The Disability Studies Reader (3rd ed.). (pp. 266-273). New York: Routledge.
Siebers, T. (2008). Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Silverman, D. (2005). Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications.
Tulle, E. (2003). The bodies of veteran elite runners. In C. A. Faircloth (Ed.), Aging bodies, images and everyday experience (pp. 229-258). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Twigg, J. (2004). The body, gender, and age: Feminist insights in social gerontology. Journal of Aging Studies 18(1). 59-73.
Whitaker, A. (2010). The body as existential midpoint – the aging and dying body of nursing home residents. Journal of Aging Studies 24(2). 96-104.
Wilson, J.C. and Lewiecki-Wilson, C. (2001). Introduction. In J.C. Wilson and C. Lewiecki-Wilson (Eds.), Embodied rhetorics: Disability in language and culture (pp. 1-26). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.