Writing wrinkles

Aet Leemet

University of Lleida, Spain

The aim of this paper is to explore some of the aspects of female identity based on the relation between ageing, creativity, and sexuality.

The analysis is based on the female protagonists of three books by three Canadian women writers—Margaret Laurence’s heroine, the writer Morgan Gunn in The Diviners; the artist protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye; and the bibliographer Lou in Marian Engel’s Bear.

The paper is divided into three parts. The first part, “Writing Wrinkles,” concentrates on the difficulties experienced by the three protagonists in coming to terms with the passage of time. The section portrays their refusal to accept the external signs of ageing, their struggles with the loss of youthful idealism, and their fear of eccentricity. The second part, “Men Revisited,” explores the effects of aging on emotional closeness and intimate love. The third part, “(New) Windows on Creativity,” is an attempt to understand how the process of growing old affects or may affect artistic powers, and whether the creative potential is the unique domain of the young.