The article is used to open up an alternative view of age and, thus, the possibility of speaking about it in other ways. The argumentation is based mainly on Roland Barthes and links his theses with forerunning epistemologies of gaze and stereotypical speech. On the one hand, this is done with the existentialist criticism of common ways of viewing age and speaking about it (Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Améry) and, on the other hand, with an older cultural-anthropological starting point for counter-narratives: 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.

Schlagworte
age, study of age, othering, alterity, dissidence, counter-narrative