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Do liminal embodied experiences such as illness, death and dying affect literary form? In recent years, the concept of embodiment has been theorized from various perspectives. Gender studies have been concerned with the cultural implications of embodiment, arguing to move away from viewing the body as a prediscursive phenomenon to regarding it as an acculturated body. Age studies have extended this view to the embodied experience of ageing, while drawing attention to the ways in which the ageing body, through its materiality and plasticity, restricts the possibilities of (de)constructing subjectivity. These current debates on embodiment find a strong counterpart in literary representation. The contributions to this anthology investigate how and to what extend physical borderline experiences affect literary form.

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Heike Hartung is an independent scholar in English Studies, associated at the University of Potsdam, Germany, and the University of Graz, Austria. She has earned her PhD in English Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and her post-doctoral degree in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Potsdam. In her publications she applies the methods of literary theory to the interdisciplinary fields of aging, disability and gender studies. Her research interests further include narrative theory and the history of the novel. She has earned research fellowships from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the University of Potsdam and the University of Graz. She is a founding member of the European Network in Aging Studies.

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