Main description:

This collection begins with two premises: that our understanding of the nature and forms of creativity in later life remains limited and that dialogue between specialists in gerontology, the arts and humanities can produce the crucial new insights that are so obviously needed. Representing the outcome of ongoing dialogue across the disciplinary divide, the contributions of this volume reflect anew on what we share and how we differ; creating new narratives so as to build an understanding of late-life creativity that goes far beyond the narrow confines of the pervasively received idea of 'late style'.

Creativity in Later Life encompasses a range of personal reflections and discussions of the boundaries of creativity, including:

Canonical artistic achievements to community art projects

Narratives of carers for those living with dementia

Analyses of creative theory

Through these insightful chapters, the authors consequently offer an understanding of creativity in later life as varied, socialised and - above all - located in the cultural and economic circumstances of the here and now.

This title will appeal to academics, practitioners and students in the various gerontological, arts and humanities fields; and to anyone with an interest in the nature of creativity in later life and the forms it takes.

Contents:

Introduction

David Amigoni and Gordon McMullan

The challenges of late-life creativity

Imagining otherwise: the disciplinary identity of gerontology

Ruth Ray

The singing voice in late life

Jane Manning

Creative ageing: the social policy challenge

Susan Hogan and Emily Bradfield

Rethinking late style

Turner's last works and his critics

Sam Smiles

Constructing a late style for David Bowie: old age, late-life creativity, popular culture

Gordon McMullan

An 'old man in the dimming world': Theodor Adorno, Derek Walcott and a defence of the idea of late style

Robert Spencer

The varieties of late-life creativity

Late-life creativity: assessing the value of theatre in later life

Miriam Bernard and Michelle Rickett

Late-life creativity: methods for understanding arts-

generated social capital in the lives of older people

Jackie Reynolds

'It's play, really, isn't it?': dress, creativity, old age

Hannah Zeilig and Anna-Marie Almira

Visual diaries, creativity and everyday life

Wendy Martin and Katy Pilcher

Self, civic engagement and late-life creativity

Angela Glendenning

Narrating dementia

A critical narrative on late-life creativity and dementia: integrating citizenship, embodiment and relationality

Pia Kontos and Alisa Grigorovich

'The artistry of it all': narrating The Tempest, dementia and the mapping of identity in a Manchester extrincare housing scheme

Liz Postlethwaite

Terry Pratchett's Living with Alzheimer's as a case study in late-life creativity

Martina Zimmerman

Narratives as talking therapy: research with Sikh carers of a family member with dementia in Wolverhampton

Karan Jutlla

Old age, creativity and the late city

'Work, work, work and full steam ahead': Ian McKay and the conserving radicalism of the Gorton Visual Art Group, public artists in later life

John Miles

The late Peter Rice: late-style stories of ageing and the city in A Bright Past for Stoke on Trent

David Amigoni