Material Bodies

(Jacob Rumans) #1

262 RüdigerKunow


museums and mausoleums is very much à propos here. The old ladies
aretherenotfortheirownsake,buttobeexhibited,tobelookedat—by
Marian and the reader—and throughout the viewer remains located
where according to Mary Louise Pratt the ethnographic observer is
positioned, "fixed on the edge of a space looking in and/or down upon
whatis other" (M. L.Pratt 32). Looking in as looking down is so much
inscribed in the narrative that the elderly remain consistently on the far
sideofrepresentation.Hence,theclearlinedrawnbetweenobserverand
observed translates into a set of oppositions: between an inside (smelly,
unpleasant, and old) and an outside (fresh, promising, and young)
between open and closed spaces (movement vs. confinement) etc. Such
a representation keeps aged Otherness at an observable distance and
henceundercontrol.
Welty's story about an old-age institution remained an exception for
alongtime.Veryrarelydidwritersoffictionturntheirattentiontoage-
specificplacessuchasresidentialcare.Thatthisischanginghasalready
been mentioned. In what follows I want to avoid simply re-iterating the
talestoldinnursinghomenarrativesorreadingtheminareductiveway
asmoreorless"realistic"portrayals.Instead,itmightbebettertofocus
on the material praxis of caregiving and the structures on which it
builds.^94 These are at the heart of the social but also cultural, even
ideological—resourced by cultural scripts while in their turn feeding
intoexistingrepresentations.
In the case of residential eldercare, to which I restrict myself here,
the basic structural arrangement can be described in abstract terms as
follows: one person, usually presumed young,givescare, that person
"cares"andactsas"caregiver,"whileanother,mucholderone,receives
care, oftentimes even depends on it, emotionally, materially, or
symbolically. This imbricates both caregiver and care-recipient in a set
of essentially dialectical relationships: care involves the private person;
it touches upon—in quite a literal sense—the most intimate aspects of
his/herlife.Atthesametime,andespeciallywhennotdeliveredbynext
ofkin,care,howeverprivate,alwaysbringsintoplaythepublicdomain,


(^94) Foramoreelaborateargumentoncareanditsresidentialarrangementscf.my
"Another Kind of Intimacy: Care as Transnational and Transcultural
Relationship."AgeCultureHumanities2(2015):329-35.Print.

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