A critical examination of anti-aging discourse: the relevance of the works of michel foucault and susan sontag

Download

index.pdf

Date

2008

Author

Mortaş, Nihan

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

331
views

75
downloads

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a critical approach to the recent anti-aging discourse which has become popular after the 1990’s. Anti-aging movement is concerned with certain implementations which aspire to make individuals live longer and healthier by controlling and disciplining their bodily conditions and lifestyle choices. This study attempts to examine certain perceptions and assumptions of anti-aging discourse about body, living and keeping alive peculiar to late modern times by taking into consideration three popular emblematic anti-aging books. For this aim, the techniques, recommendations, suggestions and basic premises of popular anti-aging books are examined in terms of the question whether anti-aging discourse presents a new project concerning body and lifestyle, or not. In order to answer this question, Foucauldian theory on “the power over life” and Sontag’s approach to “the metaphorical representation of illness in late modern times” are employed for constructing the theoretical basis of this thesis. The examination of anti-aging discourse reveals that, this discourse redefines the meaning of age and reinterprets human temporality by narrating aging process with certain metaphors. Moreover, it is seen that anti-aging discourse transforms the aging process into a performative sphere by representing the aging as a merely biological and controllable situation.

Subject Keywords

General Social Sciences.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12609275/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/17514

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

An analysis of a transformation : the concept of public service Uçar (Karabulut), Emel; Aksoy, Şinasi; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2006) This thesis evaluates the current transformation of the concept of public service, which has been reflected as new trends in the domain of the public services, within the context of changes in the role of state and the discipline of public administration that have been experienced under the influence of neo-liberal policies of the post-1980s. In the thesis, the concept of public service, which has been used in reference to administrative law, and dynamics of its transformation have been analyzed from the pe...
A critical evaluation of governance in the framework of rural development in Turkey Kovancı Shehrin, Petek; Adalı, Orhan; Department of City and Regional Planning (2005) This thesis attempts to construct a cross-section of governance with a critical viewpoint and an interdisciplinary approach, with a focus to planning. Governance is discussed by underlining the diversity of the underlying processes in social sciences, regarding various recent and important aspects of theoretical and conceptual discussions and subsequently rendering them measurable within the framework of the planning agenda. This thesis constitutes an effort in planning whereby the common denominator focuse...
An evolution of the human rights policy of the European Union Noyan, Gülnur; Dağı, İhsan Duran; Department of International Relations (2006) This thesis concentrates on the development of human rights policy of the European Economic Communities(EEC) within its transformation process into a political organization. the assumption underlying this study is that the EEC was established following World War II as a regional solution that would enable the restructuring of Europe on the bases of power, stability, and peace. this thesis deals with enlargement as a security-oriented strategy, while, at the same time, it endeavors to analyze the EEC treatme...
A critical appraisal on the societal effects of television magazine programs in Turkey Çakar, Mehmet; Kaya, Ahmet Raşit; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2004) This thesis analyzes the contents of the Turkish magazine programs to explore as if the contents feed anti- establishment feelings or reinforce the existing hegemony in the society. The theses also traces the audience attitudes and beliefs towards the magazine programs in Turkey. The results suggested that programs do not represent any threat to the existing hegemony. On the contrary, it is more plausible to suggest that they represent a serious support to the existing order. The audience reactions revealed...
A comparative evaluation of knowledge and income spillovers: the case of Antalya and İzmir city regions Hasirci, Hediye Nur; Eraydın, Ayda; Department of City and Regional Planning (2008) The empirical literature in economic geography has recently dealt with two fundamental questions, whether growth or innovation is spatially bounded or not and how far the economic growth is determined by knowledge. In this thesis, relations between economic growth and knowledge relation is discussed from spatial spillovers perspective with the help of spatial econometric techniques. Adding city-region discussion to the existing literature, the thesis aims to evaluate the economic growth and knowledge spillo...

Citation Formats

N. Mortaş, “A critical examination of anti-aging discourse: the relevance of the works of michel foucault and susan sontag,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2008.