‘Old Age is no Place for Sissies’: Representations of Older Women in DubravkaUgrešić's Baba Yaga Laid an Egg
Vlatka Velčić

Abstract
Since the aging population is becoming a global phenomenon in both the developed and developing world, recent representations of older women found in fiction illuminate both the harsh realities of aging and specific aspects of women’s social roles and sense of self. Novels that focus on female characters and the aging process explore both negative and positive elements of senescence, the biological process of aging, and adaptive strategies for women. This essay uses an interdisciplinary approach to analyze how fiction reflects observed and statistical aspects of aging in Eastern Europe, and specifically examines the contributions of DubravkaUgrešić to a growing body of representation of older women, in the novel Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, and how the portrayal of women in the novel reveals the ambiguities of female aging, in particular within the unique cultural context of post-war Croatia.

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