Discourses of Ageing in Fiction and Feminism

What do fictional representations of older women add to our understanding of a group of individuals often marginalized in our youth-oriented society? How far can they challenge the more dominant representations to be found in popular culture, and even in medical and sociological journals? And what has feminism had to contribute? Starting from an overview of nineteenth-century women's fiction in relation to these contexts, Discourses of Ageing in Fiction and Feminism explores these questions through close readings of the work of major twentieth-century women novelists, considered in relation to these non-fictional perceptions. It argues that their novels offer a feminist understanding of the "invisible" woman sometimes lacking in feminism itself.