Isabella Paoletti, Being an older woman: A study in the social production of identity. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998. Pp. xiv, 94. Hb $36.00, pb $19.95.

Abstract

In the past fifteen years, there has been an upsurge of interest in matters social-gerontological within both sociolinguistics and communication science. This is manifest in an abundance of books, and particularly special journal issues, in an international series of conferences (at its fifth venue in Vancouver, 2001), and in a handbook on the topic (Nussbaum & Coupland 1995). Paoletti's concise paperback – the eighth in a series, “Everyday communication: Case studies of behavior in context,” edited by Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz and Stuart J. Sigman – contributes to this growing literature in important ways, not least of which are its focus on the active elderly and its recourse to Italian data.