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In her novel What Are You Going Through (2020), Sigrid Nunez examines a friendship between two women tested by terminal cancer. Drawing on cinematic works and theatrical tropes, Nunez argues for the disjuncture between mind and body in older women: however much they attempt to grow old gracefully, such women are as confused by life as the young. Critiquing the danger of tyrannical beauty norms that lead women to deny the aging process, Nunez focuses rather on the power of female friendship, storytelling and listening in this feminist novel with its sustained attention to older women’s stories. Maxey shares this novel’s ethical imperative that we should listen empathetically to other people’s difficulties, especially as they grow older.

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Aging, Illness, and Storytelling in Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Ruth Maxey

摘要

In her novel What Are You Going Through (2020), Sigrid Nunez examines a friendship between two women tested by terminal cancer. Drawing on cinematic works and theatrical tropes, Nunez argues for the disjuncture between mind and body in older women: however much they attempt to grow old gracefully, such women are as confused by life as the young. Critiquing the danger of tyrannical beauty norms that lead women to deny the aging process, Nunez focuses rather on the power of female friendship, storytelling and listening in this feminist novel with its sustained attention to older women’s stories. Maxey shares this novel’s ethical imperative that we should listen empathetically to other people’s difficulties, especially as they grow older.