Norbert Elias e uma narrativa acerca do envelhecimento e da morte

Abstract

This article investigates the contribution made by Norbert Elias (1897-1990) to the problematization of old age by analyzing his text "Envelhecer e morrer". Here, the sociologist is seen as an author of texts which can help build up references that span disciplinary boundaries, or even overcome the polarization between 'health-' and 'social-'related knowledge, making it possible to form the desired field of study on ageing. Though Elias sometimes aligns himself with ideas bordering on an idealization of ageing from a pre-capitalist 'Golden Age', he does offer insights which deserve to be taken into consideration, especially when he relates the contemporary experience of ageing to the invention of modernity itself.