“I am not that type of grandmother”: (non)compliance with the grandmother archetype among contemporary Czech grandmothers

Abstract

This chapter discusses the ways in which a literary character from The Grandmother: A story of country life in Bohemia, written in 1855 by Božena Němcová, is translated into the contemporary conceptualization of the ‘typical’ grandmother in popular culture and an archetype in the sociological meaning of the word, and how it serves as a frame of reference for narrative expressions of identity among contemporary Czech grandmothers. The results are based on the analysis of cultural production and qualitative interviews with Czech active agers, who connect the literary character both positively and negatively to changing social role performances via everyday practices such a food preparation, care and appearance. The chapter concludes by enhancing existing typologies of grandparental roles and shows how the normativity of the ideal operates within the narrative accounts of today´s young-old persons..