隨著醫藥發達及少子化影響,高齡人口成長比率逐年攀升,臺灣預計於2018年正式邁入高齡社會。當高齡議題日趨熱議的今日,臺灣社會對於「高齡」的認知與理解又是什麼?細究日常生活的貶義詞,發現多與「老」相關,例如「老番顛」、「老不修」、「馬路三寶—女人、老人、老女人」等,其充滿年齡歧視,可窺見大眾對於高齡者的認知帶有相當程度的負面意涵。 文學作品因其龐大的讀者群,對社會具有相當的影響力,爰此,本研究選取刻劃底層人民、貼近日常生活的臺灣鄉土文學為研究主軸,採用內容分析法的主題研究,以「人物性別」、「人物角色」、「日常活動」、「外貌動作」、「世代互動」、「形象塑造」、「人格特質」七個類目,剖析臺灣鄉土文學中的高齡者形象,並檢視臺灣鄉土文學年齡歧視的情形。研究結果發現,臺灣鄉土文學中的高齡者雖然大多以健康、正向的樣貌出現,但其角色多與家族系統相關,同時,性別因素亦影響了高齡者出現的比例與角色的重要性,如是描繪,容易使讀者對於高齡者的認知產生偏頗。希冀藉由本研究,提醒讀者以新角度閱讀文學作品,創作者以高齡者的視角看世界,最後,期待高齡相關領域的研究重視年齡歧視議題,藉以喚醒社會對於年齡歧視的關注,讓大眾以更為中立客觀的角度認識高齡者。
As the development of medicine and the influence of low birth rate, the rate of the elders is rising up yearly. Taiwan will be aging society in 2018, so lot of attention was given to the issues of the elderly. For example, how people feel about the elders and how people understand about the aging in the society? From the analysis of daily speaking, it is easy to find that there is lot of negative vocabulary in daily conversation because of ageism. Thus, it shows that people always have the negative stereotype toward the elder. The impact of literature on the society is huge, because there are many readers to read the literature in every day. Is there any negative stereotype in the literature? Few studies focus on this issue, so this study chose Taiwanese Nativist Literature as the sample to analyze. The content analysis was employed to analyze the elders’ image, and examining the ageism in Taiwanese Nativist Literature. The analysis categories included “ the roles’ gender ”, “ the roles’ character ”, “ the daily activities ”, “ the appearance and movement ”, “ the generational interaction ”, “ the creation of image ”, and “ the elders’ personality ”. The study found that the elders were written as healthy and positive appearance in Taiwanese Nativist Literature, but their roles are always within the family system. Furthermore, the rate of appearance and the importance of the role about older women were affected by the sexism and ageism together. As mentioned above, it’s easy for people to have wrong understanding towards the elders. From this study, we suggest readers to read literature with the new perspective and the authors to write stories without ageism. Then people will have more positive understanding and attitudes towards the elderly, and the society will be more friendly to the elders.