Harm-Peer Zimmermann

Meet an old friend again

Prudence as a “punctum” of dissidence in the “studium” of age

Shortlink: https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART102800

Buy article

Abstract

The article wants to open up an alternative view of age and thus the possibility to speak about it in other ways. The argumentation is mainly based on Roland Barthes and links his theses with forerunning epistemologies of gaze and stereotypical speech – on the one hand with the existentialist criticism of common ways of viewing age and speaking about it (Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Améry), on the other hand with an older cultural-anthropological starting point for counternarratives: prudence (Johann Gottfried Herder). The train of thought finally leads to the conclusion that the category of age must be held in suspension and that a punctum of dissidence needs to be introduced into the study of age.

Keywords
age, study of age, othering, alterity, dissidence, counternarrative

APA citation
Zimmermann H. (2019). Einen alten Freund wiedertreffen: Besonnenheit als punctum von Dissidenz im studium des Alters. Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 115(1), 71-82. https://www.waxmann.com/artikelART102800