We are delighted to welcome Verena Lueken in today’s interview. She is one of the most prominent voices in the German-language feature pages. As a long-time author for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, she has accompanied the thinking of our time with a keen sense of language, culture and society – between New York and Frankfurt, between the movie theater, literary criticism and her own publications.
In her new book “Alte Frauen” (Old Women), she takes a critical look at a topic that is often ignored in our society – female ageing. But Verena does not talk about retreat, decline or resignation. She tells of courage, new beginnings, subversive power and visibility.
1 Dear Verena, how nice to be able to introduce you to our community in our FemalExperts online magazine. I’d like to take a look at your biography right away with the following question: Your studies included sociology, German studies and film studies. Which of these disciplines still influences your writing style the most today?
None of the subjects I studied influenced my style. But every literary book I’ve read, almost every letter I’ve received, and the dialogues I’ve heard in the cinema. A style, mine at least, since I never took part in a creative writing workshop, develops along with the life I lead, the conversations and readings.
2. you have been working for the F.A.Z. since 1989 – how has your many years as a cultural and film critic shaped you, and what do you take with you into your literary work today?
Everything.
3. were there any topics during your journalistic career that you would have liked to explore in greater depth but were unable or not allowed to at the time?
No. I had every freedom to deal with and write what seemed important to me and what interested me. This wasn’t always met with enthusiasm or appreciation, or even raised eyebrows in some circumstances, but it was never prevented. Of course, it’s always good to delve deeper, and there’s always too little time. I catch up on some things, or perhaps I come back to them years later.
4. what was it like for you personally to switch from journalistic writing to literary portraiture – with a focus on individual, real women’s biographies?
There is no break in the approach or in the writing itself. The decisive difference in the case of these portraits of women between newspaper/magazine and book is the length. Length brings freedom. Information can be condensed into any format. But capturing a person in their individuality and uniqueness takes time, which translates into length. Describing scenes, digressing, letting your own thoughts run free and airing out the sentences again and again before they are written in their final form – that’s what makes a literary portrait, and there’s usually not enough time or space for that in a newspaper.
5 You lived in New York for many years and have written about the city several times. How does your relationship to these two worlds – New York and Frankfurt – influence your perspective on topics such as age, visibility and the public sphere?
In both cities, I became the person I am today and the person I write as today.
6. how has your own relationship to ageing changed in the course of your research for “Old Women” – be it intellectually, emotionally or socially?
I enjoyed spending so much time with these women, who are all over eighty. I was inspired by each of them in different ways. About how they live. In apartments full of art and handicrafts and things collected over time, the one. In almost empty white rooms, the other. How they talk about their work, their plans, new projects. You can go on and on, they showed me, a tremendous relief from all thoughts: And then? The longer I was with them, the less it made sense to me to make a person’s age the yardstick for anything. My ideal would be for it to only appear on birth and death certificates. It’s no good as a category for life.
Wise, bold and free – it’s time to listen to the old women
7. were there also moments of doubt during the writing process – whether the topic of the visibility of older women would reach a wider audience or possibly offend?
No. When I’m writing, I don’t initially think about the reading public or how the book will be received. That comes much later, actually only when the book is completely finished. It was funny how one of the people portrayed, the filmmaker and until recently President of the Akademie der Künste, said before our discussions: ‘Are old women a sexy subject?’ I replied at the time: ‘Let’s see. That’s the attitude in writing.
8 You mention Jane Campbell’s sharp, sometimes sarcastic tone. How important is stylistic sharpness to you – especially with regard to social taboos or outdated role models?
Under certain circumstances, formulating precisely means becoming sharp, and I am all for that. Finding sentences that can be remembered, that can become battle cries. ‘Old women are people too’ is one such phrase by Jane Campbell. Absolutely!
9 In your experience and observation, to what extent is female ageing fundamentally different from male ageing – beyond purely external perception?
My impression is that women age better. Which, incidentally, is borne out by the statistics. They are, it seems to me, less snivelling, even if I would prefer to avoid such generalizations. Society’s ignorance towards them gives them a freedom – which I don’t want to romanticize, it would be much better if society took an interest in them, listened to them, looked at them and their work, included them instead of excluding them. But the freedom to simply carry on or start something new is something that the old women I spoke to have and take for themselves.
10. what could the media, cultural institutions or schools do in concrete terms to give old women – beyond the role of grandmother – more space, voice and appreciation?
Give them more space, a voice and appreciation.
11. when you think about the next generation of women, what message would you like to give them – especially with regard to self-determination, visibility and the freedom to courageously shape their own lives even after the age of fifty, sixty or seventy?
I don’t have a message. But I have observed and learned from listening that women who do not see age as the main building block of their identity are better able to overcome the hurdles that society puts in their way. Age means that youth is not a good yardstick when it comes to life.
Dear Verena, with your work you show that old age is not a deficit – but a condensed form of life, experience and freedom. Your stories encourage us to shape our own lives with self-confidence and curiosity at every stage of life.
For all those who are wondering what female empowerment looks like beyond youth-fixated narratives, this role model interview is an invitation to look, listen and be inspired.
About the author
Kinga Bartczak advises, coaches and writes on female empowerment, new work culture, organizational development, systemic coaching and personal branding. She is also the managing director of UnternehmerRebellen GmbH and publisher of the FemalExperts magazine .
