ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to examine the discourse circulating around the notion of end-of-life, first in terms of the centrality of physical deterioration that it assumes, and the “culture of senility” ’ that such a problem is conceived as mobilizing. Then I explore implications of such a regime upon conceptions of care for the self and for the other, reflected in the self-understanding of obsolescence as it might affect self-knowledge and caregiving. Finally, I examine some avenues of resistance organized around narrative relations to mortality that the notion of end-of-life promises to awaken in the wide-awake subject, both caregiver and aged in their care.
