Tanz der Vampire: Der mediale Altersdiskurs der Achtziger Jahre in der Wochenschrift DIE ZEIT

  • This article investigates concepts of aging and elder people in media discourse of the 1980s in West Germany. It discusses the question whether post-modern times lead to arbitrariness, in which the knowledge of the elderly becomes fluid and gives them new freedom. Christiane Streubel identifies three main issues of the dominant discourse of old age that contradict the idea of happy postmodern times for people of age. In the debate about reforming social policy and pension insurance, pensioners are the only required elementary constituents, but passive and all-consuming at the same time. The second issue focuses on the treatment of older people, which in the 1980s was regarded as a test for the humanity and legitimacy of the political system as a whole. But even if the media try to get really close to the ordinary elderly by reporting about their everyday life, the language of discourse reveals strangeness, fear and marginalisation.

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Metadaten
Author:Christiane Streubel
URL:http://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/sites/default/files/medien/material/2013-3/Streubel_2008.pdf
Parent Title (German):SPIEL - Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft
Document Type:Journal Article
Language:German
Date of Publication (online):2016/02/17
Year of first Publication:2005
Release Date:2016/02/17
Volume:24
Issue:H. 1
First Page:179
Last Page:193
Studies in Contemporary History: Materials:3/2013 Zeitgeschichte der Vorsorge 3/2013 / Zur Debatte
Licence (German):License LogoMit freundlicher Genehmigung des jeweiligen Autors / Verlags für Online-Ausgabe der Zeitschrift Zeithistorische Forschungen