Ageing and regenerative medicine in twenty-first century literature and film

This project investigates the representation ageing and the possibilities of regeneration and rejuvenation in twenty-first century literature and film. Exploring the ‘entanglement’ of science, culture and the imagination in the promises of biomedical research to extend longevity and to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs, the project considers the distinctive contribution of literary and cinematic texts to our understanding of the ethical and ideological dimensions of medical regeneration.

Aims and objectives:
Regenerative medicine promises the creation of living tissues to repair or replace damaged organs or tissues and to mitigate the effects of ageing. It is sustained and driven by the ideologically powerful impulse to evade the fact of our own mortality and ageing processes. However, this impulse raises a number of questions about sustainability, the local and global social and economic inequalities that determine access to healthcare and its articulation with attitudes to disability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and citizenship. This project aims:
•To produce a close, historically specific analysis of the role of contemporary literary and cinematic texts in the articulation of particular attitudes, desires and anxieties about medical regeneration and ageing paying specific attention to the significance of discourses of dis/ability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and citizenship
•To identify the ways in which these themes are mediated in particular literary and cinematic genres
•To consider how a critical engagement with contemporary literature and film in this context enables us to understand the role of cultural practices in our interactions with science and medicine

The key objectives in exploring these intersections are:
•To develop an understanding of the role of literature and film in contemporary biomedical culture with specific reference to the expression of hopes, fears and anxieties related to ageing and the promise of medical regeneration
•To understand the ethical, political and ideological dimensions of contemporary discourses around ageing and regeneration and the particular cultural forms and genres within which these themes are explored.

The supervisory team for this project will be Dr Lucy Burke and Dr David Wilkinson

The closing date for applications is 31st January 2017.
To apply, please use the form on our web page: http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/postgraduate-research-course/ - please note, CVs alone will not be accepted.

For informal enquiries, please contact: [Email Address Removed]
Please quote the Project Reference in all correspondence.