Aagje Swinnen and John A. Stotesbury (eds.) (2012). Aging, Performance and Stardom: Doing Age on the Stage of Consumerist Culture. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 208 pp. ISBN 978 3 6439 0176 7 (paperback)

摘要

This second volume in the series Aging studies in Europe deals withperformances in film, television and theatre. The chapters analyse culturalproductions ranging from the film The Mother (2003) to the televisedhidden camera show Benidorm Bastards (2010). The former is a much talkedabout movie, in which May, in her sixties, comes to London after herhusband’s death and begins a love and sexual relationship with a youngerman, her daughter’s boyfriend. From a psychoanalytic framework AnnKaplan analyses how the reception and criticism of the movie dealtwith the age differences in the relationship as well as with gendered roleexpectations of women, especially mothers. Benidorm Bastards is a formatexported to several European countries. In the show, pensioners are cast indifferent situations which are meant to be provoking for the unwittingbystanders, mostly young people. In her introduction to the book AagjeSwinnen discusses different interpretations of the show. In other chaptersadverts are examined, discussing representations of age and ageing in acommercial culture.