“DIESER ZWANG, VOM ALTER ZU SPRECHEN.” ZU BIOLOGISCHEN, PSYCHOLOGISCHEN UND SOZIALEN ASPEKTEN DES MÄNNLICHEN ALTERS IN MARTIN WALSERS WERKEN AUS DEM XX. JAHRHUNDERT

Abstract

Old age, an inevitable outcome of the process of aging, in which biological, mental and social changes lead to biological and mental imbalance, has been present as a subject in literature since the very beginning, and we can find both male and female elderly protagonists, with the changes observable in their final stages of lives. The article analyses selected protagonists of literary works of Martin Walser created in the 20th century, their spiritual, emotional and physical aging, problems of sexual nature, the deepening gap between elderly women or man and the young generation, or loneliness and lack of understanding connected with aging. The subject of transience, aging, declining vital force, existential dilemmas which accompany the last years of life, has been present in Walser’s works for decades, not only in those created recently the motif of the fear of life, the truth, ageing, loss and inevitable death, determining the attitudes and actions of the protagonists has been particularly foregrounded. The early works “A Runaway Horse” and “Breakers” provide material for analysis herein.