Theme Of Aging In Early Modern England

194 Words1 Pages
Cultural configurations of aging in Early Modern England necessitate a nuanced understanding of the dialogue among aging Queen Elizabeth’s “politics of longevity”, intergenerational politics of late Tudor England and the combative self-awareness of an aging subject. Elizabeth’s negotiations with aging (as reflected in her desire to re-fashion/invent her own image) to combat the cultural anxieties of aging “excited some of the period’s most creative literary talents to a vigorous rethinking of the way we as individuals experience and regard our own aging bodies” (Martin,28). Pastoral literature of Early Modern England could be mapped as a potential site of contestations and negotiations, where elderly shepherds self-consciously challenge and