- Tytuł:
- Starość jako wyobrażenie kulturowe
- Autorzy:
-
Rygielska, Małgorzata
Gomóła, Anna - Powiązania:
-
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1790355.epub
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1790355.mobi
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1790355.pdf
https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/1790355.zip - Data publikacji:
- 2013
- Wydawca:
- Campania Teatralna GENESIS.Europejskie Centrum Kultury i Edukacji
- Opis:
- The aim of this article is to show that the category of “old age” is currently used as an academic category in social science, although it is extremely imprecise and is of a rather pre-scientific category nature. Pre-scientific categories do not need to be defined strictly and precisely, it is sufficient for them to invoke some specific meanings. On the other hand, scientific categories must be exact and precise. The phenomenon called old age is not homogenous, but it is rather a set of concurrent features such as: the number of years of one’s life, one’s health condition, professional status, and role played in the society. These features - only in common belief - form a strictly related complex. Solutions proposed by scholars representing diverse disciplines and specialties (e.g. biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, demography) do not allow for a more precise meaning. Despite this, the pre-scientific category of “old age” is still used as a strictly scientific term. The author reconstructs the image of old age in the Hebrew Bible. She shows the ambiguity of biblical records and refers to different interpretations of phrases and expressions related to ageing. She argues that determination of the exact time when a person becomes old is very difficult, since the division of human life stages is not precise in the Hebrew Bible. However, she attempts to show in what circumstances men and women were considered as aged, and tries to enumerate the characteristics attributed to old age and longevity which was believed to be a gift from God. The author also points out that according to biblical descriptions, old age is associated with wisdom and life experience, and the elderly deserve respect, since they are obliged to play important roles in the society, acting as judges, scholars, sages and leaders. The author considers the reason for resilience of the myth, and reconstructs cultural contexts for its various interpretations. Since the 19th century, we have observed ambivalence of the Icarus symbolism. The wings have become synonymous with power, zeal, strain, enthusiasm and bursts of passion typical for youth. The sole theme of flight, of conquering the skies and defying nature, transforms into a metaphor of romantic attitude, where death is not a failure, if it can contribute to a victory of ideas. The myth conveys also another, important message. It puts in contrast the pictures of youth and old age, and at the same time shows that these are not universal, but prone to changes in the course of history, and dependent upon a combination of numerous and diverse cultural conditions. Why have we forgotten about Daedalus, a famous inventor, and should we not claim him back? The very essence of myth is complementarity of alternative attitudes, and in this case also an attempt to understand youth and old age, as well as the opportunities and threats associated with them, as told by successive interpretations of this narrative. The author investigates the usage methods and contexts of lexemes related to old age, in old and modern French. Instead of a chronological review, available from numerous lexical sources, she proposes a problem approach. In French (as in many other European languages), the problem of human ageing is not only presented in phases or stages (life stages, 7-year periods, etc.). Human ageing is described similarly to the ageing of trees, where words signifying decay and the stooping towards the ground, are used metaphorically. The relation of old and young can be attributed not only to people, but also to material objects, epochs or even the world. Positive or negative characteristics of elements of this juxtaposition which have not always been considered as opposing each other depend on numerous historical and cultural conditions and are subject to changes in time. Der Text ist ein Versuch die Frage zu beantworten: was sagen die zeitgenossischen deutschen Sprichwörter uber das (hohe) Alter? Die Autorin zeigt Beispiele für die Vielseitigkeit der Bedeutungen deutscher Wörter uber das Alter. Der Ausgangspunkt dafür ist die Etymologie des Wortes alt und seine Verwandschaft mit dem latainischen alere. Die Autorin stutzt sich auf deutschsprachige Arbeiten, in denen die Altersbilder und ihre Veränderungen in der europäischen Kultur seit dem XVI Jahrhundert vorgestellt werden. Durch die Veränderungen der Altersbilder verändert sich auch der Gebrauch alter Sprichwörter und Redensarten: manche werden vergessen und neue kommen in den sprachlichen Umlauf. Die Autorin berücksichtigt auch die Ergebnisse soziologischer Untersuchungen zu der Betrachtung alter Menschen am Ende des XX Jahrhunderts. Der historische Überblick zeigt, daß das Thema Alter und Altern sowohl in der Kultur als auch in der Sprache und im Leben ständig aktuell ist. This article is dedicated to a forgotten manuscript by Polish ethnographer and writer, Ignacy Lubicz Czerwinski. The author shows the likely sources of inspiration of the writer, whose manuscript contains references to then current discoveries in the field of medicine, philosophical works, and texts concerning local history and demography. Dnie starosci [The Days of Old Age] provide guidance for both the young and the old. The former are clearly of a didactic value, while the latter aim to make the last period of life “pleasant”. The manuscript can also be seen as one of the resources facilitating reconstruction of the history of Polish culture at the turn of the 18th and the 19th centuries. The author analyses a nineteenth-century concept of youth and old age, shown in poems by Adam Mickiewicz: Do Joachima Lelewela... (Tribute to Joachim Lelewel...), Oda do młodości (Ode to Youth). The author takes into consideration the complicated political situation of the country and Mickiewicz’s life, as well as the reactions of the Philomaths to the poem by their young colleague, in light of artistic expression conventions at the turn of the 19th century. Arguably, the criticism of the Oda do młodości had much deeper roots than the dictates of classicistic poetics. It also stemmed from established beliefs, according to which the old values had to be protected, and - in a broader context - from the situation of Polish culture against the culture of Europe, whose ideas regarding the glorification of novelty and youth, for a long time present also in philosophical reflections, were introduced by Mickiewicz into his work. The author reconstructs the approach to old age and to the elderly on the basis of Julia Hartwig’s works, comparing her writings with texts by Czeslaw Milosz, who saw in the modern - and more precisely, the twentieth-century poetry - mainly the expression of difficult, bitter and painful human experience. Hartwig shows the loneliness of old people in the shadow of imminent death which fills them with fear. The poetess calls for openness towards fellow human beings and for taking a more empathic and compassionate attitude towards older people. She argues that individual experiences and feelings brought by old age have another, more universal dimension. Old age (more than any other) brings to light the nature of our relations with people, and teaches us to value family ties. Old age teaches us to understand the mystery of life - this message was already known to ancient philosophers. The author of this article, analysing poetic images of old age and of old people, also describes different methods of coping with ageing which is understood as yet another stage of life. The author of the article is analysing the image of an old woman in the works of two Polish poets: Anna Świrszczynska (1909-1984) and Genowefa Jakubowska-Fiałkowska (born 1946). The matter which bothers her most is to what extend the two poets separate themselves from the dominating stereotypical approach to an old woman, which is usually identified with man’s approach, and if they are able to look at themselves without the category of an old woman’s utility (as for example a minder of grandchildren, etc.) and keep this look long enough to understand what (or whom) they are actually experiencing. There is also a reference to Tadeusz Rozewicz’ poem A tale of old women and a novel The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. Thanks to those texts the author is pointing out a characteristic for the old age experience mechanism of „overlaping” of the two images: the young one which is embedded in the mind of the person who is looking and the old one which is being recorded in the present. The Author refers to a concept by Margaret Mead, who, in Culture and Commitment. A Study of the Generation Gap (1970), has distinguished three models of culture: the postfigurative, the cofigurative, and the pre- figurative. These models present three types of intergenerational distance, i.e. relationships which bind grandparents and parents with their children. At the turn of ‘60s and ‘70s, Margaret Mead claimed that this was the time when the prefigurative era started. Since four decades have passed, it is worth to see if her predictions were correct. In this text, the Author asks vital questions: Towards which model of culture are we heading now? What is today’s meaning of generational unity in the Euro-American civilisation? What is the role of old people in Polish, European and American culture? How are the relationships of the old and the young shaped, and what do they depend on? On what basis can we attempt to predict the nature of future changes? The article describes the picture of old age presented in Tove Jansson’s Moominvalley in November. The writer, sketching the character of Grandpa-Grumble, refers to a certain model of social situation faced by old people. This model is not universal, but the Europeans will find some of its elements familiar. The story is not, however, only meant to give a diagnosis - Jansson shows that adverse conditions may be an impulse for action, if one realizes that it is always possible to change his or her life. Grandpa-Grumble takes the risk and, although he fails to achieve his dreams, his life becomes more purposeful and responsible. He casts away the things which trapped him - unnecessary objects and superficial relations; in new circumstances, he has disappointments, but also feels satisfaction. Jansson’s book tells to us that we always have the right to disagree with the current state of affairs and that our strength lies in this potential disagreement. This is the most vital instruction which shows to us how to be old. The author points to the current need for the development of new patterns of familiarisation with old age and death, while facing not only the problems related with old age, but also with those mechanisms which lead to a gradual lengthening of human life, without the essential care for its quality. At the same time, she asks vital questions: what happens, if we still cannot use the enormous potential of old people, if we do not learn to consider old age as an existential and cultural value, and if we do not find a place for it in our modern civilisation? Then, the idea of human dignity and building of intergenerational bonds will only be an empty slogan.
- Dostawca treści:
- Biblioteka Nauki
Książka