Many societies in the world today are challenged by the rapidly escalating phenomenon of an aging population with its unique problems and needs that call for being addressed both in daily life and in research. From the end of the last century onward, age studies has developed as a comparatively new discourse within the humanities which, necessarily, tends to explore crosscurrents between aging, ageism, feminism, gender, class, dis/ability, and so on. Arguably, aging does not always refer to the state of being fairly advanced in years but can appear as the experience of any age group, underscoring the culturally constructed and inculcated nature of experiencing one’s age and its shaping contexts. This collection of essays published in the HJEAS Books series began as a themed block of five essays on age and aging in literature and theatre included in the Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (2020.2). Six new essays and a note about a recent and very timely theatre event in Ireland were then added. The authors are from Britain, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Writers whose novels or works for the stage are discussed in the collection include Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, Edward Bond, John M. Coetzee, Brian Friel, Ronald Harwood, Martin McDonagh, Frank McGuinness, Conor McPherson, Arthur Miller, David Mitchell, Tom Murphy, and Tennessee Williams. The essays draw on up-to-date theoretically and critically focused reference literature and on observations of critical gerontology and international age studies. The analyses demonstrate the importance of aging for writers, readers, and theatre audiences alike.
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