Desire in the broadest sense as a form of generous self-assertion should ideally increase with
the passage of time as we gradually acquire deeper insight into ourselves and others.
Prescriptive cultural stereotypes however put obstacles on our path to progress as
individuation. Yet growing older should not entail renunciation of the singularity of personal
fulfilment. This volume is a collection of literary testimonies to the power of art to
challenge and resist the social constraints on desire in the context of aging. In the essays
men and women claim their right to age in desire and imaginative vigour.
