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The
Elderquest in Today’s Movies and Novels is a new course made
possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
entitled Examining a New Model for Old Age in Literature and Film.
Note: Although this course is free and open to all, it does require
advance registration.
Elder heroes behave very differently from younger ones. Their journeys
are often inward rather than outward, backward rather than forward, slow  and intentional rather than fast and impetuous. But their
actions are just as heroic, if not more so, for the stakes are higher,
time is short, and the flesh is weak. Victory, and it’s far from
guaranteed, is full acceptance and then transcendence of the self, an
authentication of one’s experience and then a willingness to let it go
as one helps others to prepare for the ascendancy of the next
generation.
Join us as our elder heroes—men and women, Swedish, American, and
Brazilian—hit the road to show us what old age, and especially the new
old age, is really about.
The facilitator will introduce each film (five or six minutes). Then,
after we have spent one and a half to two hours watching the film and
taking a break, there will be a 45-minute guided discussion of its
themes and how they relate to our own experience of so-called old age.
The course will also involve reading and discussing two Elderquest
novels.
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