Encore was written at Sarton’s eighties, from 1991 to 1992。 The journal begins with Sarton’s eightieth birthday。 Some pieces are done by dictation as Sarton suffers great pain from disease and incapability。 In this journal, Sarton touches upon issues like aging and dying and devotes some space to the infirmities of Sarton's old age while also dealing with her interactions with friends and observations of current events。 This journal witnesses Sarton’s life-long writing career and forms an important part of humanistic gerontological literary。 Although she has gone, her works brings controversial argument on Sarton’s lesbian identity as well as the enlightenment on the positive aging model。

1。2  The journals of May Sarton

In the all literature works on the old age, Sarton’s work has been late in gaining recognition, including sixteen novels, poetry and a series of journals。 

Sarton has written six series of journals spanning an entire decade of later life: Journal of a solitude (1973), The house by the sea (1977), Recovering (1980), At seventy (1984) and after the stroke (1988), Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year (1991)。 In her journals, readers will be invited to experience her old-age personal life and her inspirations。 Sarton lives alone, but she still lives a happy and peaceful life。 She continues writing, doing gardening and staying with her friends。 For most of the time, Sarton lives her old life with an easy heart and thinks it is the golden time of her life, though sometimes she has to have a hard battle with the disease。 As Thomas Hardy would say, rather than a factual history, Sarton’s journals give abundant examples not only of the concern with mortality that enriches the novels, but also of the probable sources of Sarton’s empathetic understanding of the difficulty of actually “growing” into old age, rather than accepting the tempting passivity of merely withering。 Personally speaking, the journals of May Sarton can cast lights on what the positive aging is like, and how the elderly can understand and achieve positive aging with what the novel has suggested。

1。3  Literature review on Sarton’s journals

Literary scholars are beginning to recognize the importance of aging in the creative process and to make significant contributions to gerontological theory。 Although relatively few in number, the quality of recent essays and books gives hope for the future legitimacy of the field of literary gerontology。“At the beginning, only a few pioneers, like Kathleen Woodward (1980) and Janice Sokoloff (1987), emphasized aging in their literary articles。”(Wyatt-Brown, Anne M, 1990)。 Gradually, the situation is beginning to change。 We can find more studies on this field。 In studying literary gerontology, Sarton’s work has been gaining increasing recognition。 In 1972, the book May Sarton, written by Agnes Sibley, was the first work to study Sarton’s poetry, novels and other works as a whole and gave an overall assessment of the achievements of Sarton。 Brake William edited The First Wave: Women and Poets in America, 1915-1945 in 1987。 In the last chapter of the book, William introduced the life and great creations of May Sarton and considered her as the pioneer of poets in the new generation。 

Next was about the work called That Great Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton, written by Susan Swatzlander and Marilyn R。 Mumford。 It was the most important work published in 1995。 The twelve essays in That Great Sanity edited together to provide theoretical and critical contexts that made a more symstematic and judicious assessment of Sarton’s achievements than previous ones。 In the Seeing with Fresh Eyes: A Study of May Sarton’s Journals by Jeanne Braham, Braham thinks “Though rooted in idiosyncratic experience, Sarton’s journals seek to connect with a wide readership by revealing the need to create order but of chaos, reentry out of withdrawal, health out of illness。 Her efforts to define “self” and “values” within a communal context, in part supplied by reader’s responses, link her journal to current theory exploring women’s autobiography”。 (Braham, 1995:153)Furthermore, Braham thinks “Sarton engages in a process of collaboration with the reader” (Braham, 1995:155,)。  By deliberately inviting the readers in, she engages in crucial conversation with an increasingly responsive readership。 (Braham, 1995:164) Sarton casts herself as a character in her own stories, recreating significant life experience, pondering its shape, discovering its outcome, setting her “plot” in motion, discovering its significance in the retelling。 In her journal, the process is gradual and cumulative。 (Braham, 1995:158)。文献综述