ALEXANDER McCALL-SMITH

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (24 Agosto 1948)

OBSERVACIONES GENERALES DE SU OBRA

• La serie de novelas The Sunday Philosophy Club de Alexander McCall-Smith, protagonizada por la filósofa de mediana edad y detective amateur Isabel Dalhousie, gira en torno a profundas cuestiones filosóficas y una dimensión intensamente humana que cuestiona nociones fundamentales sobre el comportamiento ético y la vida en general.

• La decisión de McCall-Smith de renunciar a todos sus compromisos profesionales a la edad de 57 años para dedicarse a escribir novelas de ficción ponen en evidencia el hecho que, como muchos gerontólogos culturales han comentado, la edad avanzada de la vida podría ser el momento para un mayor desarrollo personal e intelectual, la capacidad de elegir opciones vitales más significativas, y la oportunidad de lograr una mejor comprensión de uno mismo y de los demás.

• A través del personaje de la filósofa profesional (y vocacional) detective amateur Isabel Dalhousie, el autor reflexiona sobre la necesidad de cuestionar la moralidad inherente de nuestras acciones diarias, expresiones y pensamientos, y cómo estos pueden impactar en nuestras vidas y en las de otros.

• Isabel no se ve envuelta en casos misteriosos por simple curiosidad, sino por un impulso irresistible de hacer lo que cree que es lo correcto. La razón de ello es su propia teoría de la proximidad moral, que describe como "la base de aquellas obligaciones que surgen cuando nos encontramos lo suficientemente cerca de los demás para poder ser testigos o sentir sus necesidades, o cuando estábamos de alguna otra manera vinculados a su sufrimiento." (A Distant View of Everything 2017: 160-161).

CITAS DEL AUTOR PROCEDENTES DE LAS FUENTES PRIMARIAS (O ENTREVISTAS) SIGNIFICATIVAS

• “And that was were philosophy really did count: it set out the major choices behind all those practical day-to-day questions of charity and understanding and simple decency” (The Lost Art of Gratitude 2009: 84).

• “That was the best way of doing good, she thought; do it when the person for whom you are doing the deed is under heavy sedation and will never remember. So might one leave presents for others – while they were asleep or otherwise unaware of what you were doing.” (The Lost Art of Gratitude 2009: 242)

• “People who are naturally good have to work at it. The goodness may be there, but they have to cultivate it, work to bring it out … in order to become better people, we must practise.” (The Lost Art of Gratitude 2009: 107-109).

• “I think goodness does exist. I think most of us find in our lives that we encounter people for the most part who are reasonably prosocial, whose lives aren't completely dysfunctional … you don't have to portray the world as being a veil of tears and as being a bleak place in its entirety. That's not to say that one doesn't recognise that, but I suppose I'm just the sort of writer who works at that end of the spectrum and I think that's defensible enough.” (Alexander McCall-Smith - Interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2016)

RELACIÓN DE PUBLICACIONES/COMUNICACIONES

1- Volúmenes 2016-2019

Emma Domínguez-Rué and Linda Nierling, eds. (2016): Ageing and Technology: Perspectives from the Social Sciences. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8376-2957-6

Núria Casado-Gual, Emma Domínguez-Rué and Brian Worsfold, eds. (2016): Literary Creativity and the Older Woman Writer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Bern: Peter Lang, ISBN 978-3-0343-2199-0

Núria Casado-Gual, Emma Domínguez-Rué and Maricel Oró-Piqueras, eds. (2019): Re-discovering Age(ing): Narratives of Mentorship. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8376-4396-1

2- Publicaciones 2016-2019

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2018): The art of doing good. Aging, creativity and wisdom in the Isabel Dalhousie Novels. Journal of Aging Studies – Vol. 44 (pp.22-27), ISSN 0890-4065

Núria Casado-Gual, Emma Domínguez-Rué and Maricel Oró-Piqueras. (2019). Of Wisdom, Growth, and Gratitude: Revisiting the Mentor Figure within the Framework of Ageing Studies. In Núria Casado-Gual, Emma Domínguez-Rué and Maricel Oró-Piqueras, eds. Re-discovering Age(ing): Narratives of Mentorship. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, pp. 9-20.

Emma Domínguez-Rué. (2019).Your Child of Sorts. In Núria Casado-Gual, Emma Domínguez-Rué and Maricel Oró-Piqueras, eds. Re-discovering Age(ing): Narratives of Mentorship. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 171.

Emma Domínguez-Rué. (2019). The Mirror Stage of Old Age. In Sarah Falcus, Raquel Medina and Aagje Swinnen (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer.

3- Comunicaciones en Congresos 2016-2019

Emma Domínguez-Rué, Núria Casado Gual et al. (2016): The Creativity of the Older Woman Writer: Ten Case Studies. The SIforAGE International Conference 'Envisioning a New World: Social Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing', Barcelona (Spain) 2016.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2016): Senior Techs: Ageing and Technology from the Perspective of the Social Sciences. The SIforAGE International Conference 'Envisioning a New World: Social Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing', Barcelona (Spain) 2016.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2016): Reinventing Womanhood: Carolyn Heilbrun / Amanda Cross and Post-Menopausal Empowerment. The SIforAGE International Conference 'Envisioning a New World: Social Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing', Barcelona (Spain) 2016.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2017): The Art of Doing Good. Ageing, Creativity and Wisdom in the Isabel Dalhousie Novels by Alexander McCall-Smith. 1st INDEST International Conference, Lleida (Spain) 2017.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2017): So Miss Marple Got Engaged: Age Identity and Gender Normativity in The Sunday Philosophy Club Series by Alexander McCall-Smith. International Conference on Gender Studies – Identity, Alterity and Gender Normativity, Cambridge (UK) 2017.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2018): Wise Choices in Late Life: Wisdom and Reinvention of the Self in the Isabel Dalhousie Novels by Alexander McCall-Smith. 'Mirror, Mirror: Perceptions, Deceptions and Reflections in Time' International Conference, London (UK) 2018.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2018): Age Identity and Gender Normativity in Detective Fiction: the Amateur Sleuth. Hannover-Herrenhausen Symposium 'Perspectives of Cultural Ageing', Hannover, Germany 2018.

Emma Domínguez-Rué (2019): Ageing and Gender (Non)Conformity: the Amateur Sleuth and Alexander McCall-Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie. International Conference on Gender Studies –Gender Non-Conformity, Oxford (UK) 2019.

POR: Emma Domínguez-Rué edominguez@dal.udl.cat