摘要：With a qualitative methodology and an interdisciplinary approach, this paper
focuses on the most prominent public narratives related to elders and old age
produced in the context of the January-February 2017 collective manifestations
against the attempts of Romanian government to decriminalise corruption,
manifestations where old people were believed to play a negative role. The study
highlights the thanatic imagery which infuses the attitudes towards ageing and old
age and intensifi es the negative stereotypes of old people. The fi ndings show that,
starting from the use of the social syntax of war, the diverse identities of Romanian
elders are totally ignored in these narratives, while a general, narrow identity is
constructed through horizontal and vertical generalization, through replacing
positive stereotypes of old age with negative ones and through transforming
the elders into a radical Otherness. Undermining elders’ social identities was
discussed as an element of aff ecting their social inclusion and increasing the
risk of condemning them to social death. Also it was observed and examined the
existence of three major thanatic metaphors: the toothless mouth, the bowed head
and living on borrowed time.
关键词：elders; old age; public narratives; undermined identities; thanatic
metaphors; social death;
