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William L. Randall, The Importance of Being Ironic: Narrative Openness and Personal Resilience in Later Life, The Gerontologist, Volume 53, Issue 1, February 2013, Pages 9–16, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gns048
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Abstract
This essay applies a narrative perspective to the topic of resilience. On various fronts (physical, social, biographical), aging itself, it argues, pushes us past a perception of aging as intrinsically tragic and toward a more ironic stance instead, one marked by increased acceptance of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, intentional engagement in narrative reflection—by means of integrative reminiscence, life review, and the like—fosters such a stance directly by facilitating narrative openness and, with it, “a good strong story” for coping with the challenges of later life.