Critique and Postcritique: Analyzing Age Stereotypes in Literary Studies and Health Care

Gerontological research shows that stereotypes about older people negatively impact the quality of health care they receive. Therefore, knowledge of ageism is particularly relevant for medical students. Narrative Medicine draws on theory and methods from literary studies to interlace the humanities and medical studies.

This paper first describes a Narrative Medicine intervention at the University of Southern Denmark where medical students learn about ageism and stereotypes through a presentation of gerontological research results. In addition, literary texts and methods of close reading and reflective writing are employed to help students identify problematic stereotypes. The results of a survey conducted during the intervention suggest that students' awareness about ageism increased. Yet, rather than exploring the results of the survey, this paper's second part uses the intervention as a springboard to self-critically ask what type of humanities approaches, methods and theories are best suited to convey knowledge about ageist stereotypes. The paper sketches 2 approaches within literary studies-critique and postcritique-and applies them to a poem about an older man.

The paper discusses the gains and limitations of each approach and makes suggestions for how they can be joined with research about age stereotypes.

To create productive pathways between the humanities and gerontology, the heterogeneity of the humanities-with literary studies as the example-need to be acknowledged. That is, clarity about the differences in humanities-based methods is crucial to establish a firmer ground for their usability in interdisciplinary contexts.