Presentation: Research Project

The increasing active presence of older people in many artistic expressions breaks with the stereotype that creativity only belongs to youth. This Project looks at the literary creativity of older professional authors as well as literary contributions and other creativity of senior citizens in general. Undeniably, creativity is considered as an unquestionable source of learning and liberation from the taboos related to age and therefore, one of the best ways to achieve a better quality of life in contemporary society.

Literary gerontologists such as Amir Cohen-Shalev and Anne Wyatt Brown show that being actively creative in old age results in maintaining or even improving life quality. In the case of artists and writers, Cohen-Shalev and Wyatt Brown believe that creativity stops them from becoming an alarmist stereotype which links old age with the loss of intellectual faculties.

The project aims to affirm hypothesis that if literary creativity in older recognized authors results in a more positive outlook on age and a better quality of life, then the same should be observed in other recognized authors of a similar age when critically analysing their works and paths in life comparing them with their own.