The ‘Dys-Appearing’ Body in Doris Lessing’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Margaret Forster’s Have the Men Had Enough?

摘要

If the old body is usually read as a synonym of fragility and upcoming illness,even though not the case for most elderly citizens, the reality is that the longer we live, theincreased probability of being affected by different illnesses cannot be eluded or denied. InDoris Lessing’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Margaret Forster’s Have the Men HadEnough? the reader is invited to participate in the day-to-day routines of two aged femaleprotagonists, as well as to empathize with their inner feelings as they go through their lastlife stage. In fact, their ‘dys-appearing’ bodies, marked by their respective terminalillnesses, force these characters to grow closer to those around them and to accept the helpof their families and friends, despite their desire to keep their free will and independenceuntil the very end. The analysis of the two novels within the framework of ageing studiesaims to show the contradictions existing between a growing ageing society and thenegative cultural connotations of old age in Western society and the need to revise them.