The aim of the present contribution is to introduce, analyze and discuss a short story by Doris Lessing (1919–2013), which is capable of surprising the reader with its unconventionality. The short story title is “The Grandmothers” (2003), but the two women protagonists are nothing but a pale portrait of stereotypical elderly women. Ageing, gender and sex create such an eccentric discourse, in this piece of prose, which is able to subvert any predictable thematization of the story. The framework of ageing studies is not necessarily enough to explain the text, it is rather more appropriate to discuss the concept of “juvenescence”, as elaborated by American scholar Robert Pogue Harrison (2014), in order to critically frame the short story.
Doris Lessing's Eccentric Old Women
C. CONCILIO
2023-01-01
Abstract
The aim of the present contribution is to introduce, analyze and discuss a short story by Doris Lessing (1919–2013), which is capable of surprising the reader with its unconventionality. The short story title is “The Grandmothers” (2003), but the two women protagonists are nothing but a pale portrait of stereotypical elderly women. Ageing, gender and sex create such an eccentric discourse, in this piece of prose, which is able to subvert any predictable thematization of the story. The framework of ageing studies is not necessarily enough to explain the text, it is rather more appropriate to discuss the concept of “juvenescence”, as elaborated by American scholar Robert Pogue Harrison (2014), in order to critically frame the short story.
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