Title: Negotiating Double Otherness: Representation of Elderly Women in The Adventures of Augie March

Abstract: The representation of elderly female characters in Saul Bellow’s works, shaped by the intersection of sexism and ageism, constitutes a form of double otherness through which the age ideology of modern society and the predicament of female subjectivity can be critically examined. From the perspective of literary gerontology, this study investigates the shifting identities of elderly women in Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March across three dimensions: familial power structures, social age order, and self-perception. These elderly women reconstructs their subjectivity through bodily practices and emotional memories, thereby resisting and transcending the dominant decline narrative of aging. While Bellow’s realist portrayal foregrounds the struggles of elderly women, his humanistic perspective further illuminates the possibilities for their reconstruction of subjectivity. In critiquing ageism in modern society, he reaffirms the dignity and value of elderly women as independent subjects of life.

Keywords: Saul Bellow, elderly women, literary gerontology, ageism

Author: Tianyu Luan, Lecturer, College of International Languages and Cultures, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2026.03.010