228 RüdigerKunow
assemblage of malfunctions, physiological, and later on also
psychologicalones.MargaretGullettenotedthatinJaneAusten'sEmma
(1816), Emma's father, Mr. Woodhouse, is portrayed as having minor
boutsofforgetfulnesswithoutAustensuggestingthatthisisacondition
and a cause for alarm: "Read this way,Emmacan provide lessons for
our Alzheimer's-obsessed era" (Ag ewise 169). I will return to the
"Alzheimerizationofage"lateroninthischapter.
Even while keeping such critical reservations in mind, gerontology
has undeniably provided much of the groundwork for the prevalent
understanding of later life in societies of the Global North and possibly
beyond.^67 It has been the privileged field of scientific inquiry into the
somatic temporality of human life with its crucial junctures and
milestonesbutalsoitssuggestivetypologyandterminology.Indefining
and redefining the category of "old" along analytic parameters,
especially processes of bodily changes from midlife to later life, it has
delivered many of the operative principles on which medical, social,
evenculturaladdressestolatelifehavecometorely.
Gerontology is of course a multidisciplinary field which cannot be
fully delineated here. The brief overview attempted here must
necessarily be a look from the outside which cannot assess the relative
merits of Gerontology's scientific discoveries or protocols but must
content itself with tabulating their cultural effects—which are indeed
far-reaching and intense.^68 An influential handbook (from which the
quote below is taken) brings together contributions from biology,
neuropsychology, sociology, psychology, physiology, social science,
psychology,public health, politicaleconomy, and a host of otherfields.
As a specific scientific discipline in its own right, gerontology emerged
during a long process in the second half of the 19thcentury (Cohen 60-
72;Katz,DiscipliningOldAge18-20,"FiveEye-Openers"21-24).Since
that time, it has held out the promise of being able to identify some of
the corporeal pathologies and othernon-normal features which occur or
are taken to be normal in later life. Gerontology might thus well be
(^67) ForarecentoverviewofthefieldseeStuart-Hamilton,Ian.AnIntroductionto
Gerontology.Cambridge:CambridgeUP,2011.Print.
(^68) Such an analytics does not debate the reality status of a structure such as
capitalism but focuses instead on the "presence of the structure in its effects"
(AlthusserandBalibar8).