Representation of Aging in Samrat Upadhyay’s Selected Stories
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Authors
Shah, Hukum Singh
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Department of English
Abstract
This research explores the ways of depicting the concept of aging in some of
the stories of Samrat Upadhyay’s collection Arresting God in Kathmandu (2001). The
paper studies the age of the characters from five stories: “The Good Shopkeeper,”
“The Cooking Poet,” “Deepak Mishra’s Secretary,” “The Room Next Door,” and
“This World.” The stories cherish the young age and view old age in a very
stereotypical way: the old age becomes a negative category in which people lose
vigor and activity. By cherishing the life and energy, the stories unfold a serious truth
about the old age that Nepali people have not been able to enjoy their life in the old
age. The characters want to quench their physical, social and psychological desires
by preparing themselves to take up various actions in their life. Their endeavor to
avoid anxiety and stress fails because of negative perceptions regarding ageing. The
paper has followed textual analysis through close reading. Furthermore, the frame of
analysis is taken from the literature on aging and the research on literary gerontology
as it has appeared as one of the promising fields of the study.
Key words: Aging, Longevity, Society, Psychology, Function.