On becoming a hag
Gender, Ageing and Abjection
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4367495 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Pickard (0000-0003-3429-8880, University of Liverpool, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 157-173 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1464700119859751 |
| OpenAlex | W2953829637 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 9 |
In this article, I explore, through the novels of Elena Ferrante, the role played by the 'abject' in mediating ageing in women, focusing on its role in the movement from a disempowered to a more powerful subject position. The article has three sections. The first describes the role of the abject in constituting the feminine, focusing on the place of temporality and ageing in this process. Represented by the symbolic figure of the hag, the old woman is a source of primal fear which forms the foundation of a violently misogynistic gendered (self-)formation. However, following Barbara Creed, there are two representational forms of the hag, that of victim (hag) and that of monster (Hag), which I argue also suggest alternative subjectivities associated with ageing femininity. In the second section, I explore the movement from one form to the other by means of conceptual models drawn from Simone de Beauvoir and Margaret Morganroth Gullette, in which process a battle over the symbolic meaning of abjection is central. Moreover, ageing itself is significant in mediating the shift from an oppressed/fragmented to a powerful/integrated subject position. Whilst the structures of feeling involved in this subjectivity are emergent, fiction and imaginative literature may provide helpful early depictions and in the last section I illustrate the psychosocial domain with material drawn from two early novels by Elena Ferrante
Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Feeling · Femininity · Literature · Monster · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Subjectivity · Temporality · Gender Studies · Modernist Literature and Criticism · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Thomas Hardy Literature Studies
Reading disgust
‘My mom was old’
“It’s the not being seen that is most tiresome”
Agency in later life
Sequins, satin, feathers and fur – collaborative costume and the ageing burlesque body
Investigating the role of social media abuse in gender-based violence
Embodying wilfulness
Aging, femininity and class
Negotiating feminine identity through the maternal bond in Elena Ferrante's Troubling Love
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |