Synopses & Reviews
This is the first book-length study of the rich fiction that has emerged from the AIDS crisis. Examining first the ways in which scientific discourse on AIDS has reflected ideologies of gender and sexuality-such as the construction of AIDS as a disease of gay men, part of a battle over masculinity, and thus largely excluding women with AIDS from public attention-the book considers how such discourses have shaped narrative understandings of AIDS. On the one hand, AIDS is seen as an invariably fatal weakening of an individual's bodily defenses, a depiction often used to reconfirm an identification between disease and a weak and vulnerable gayness. On the other hand, AIDS is understood in terms of an epidemic attributable to gay "immorality" or "unnaturalness." The fiction of AIDS depends upon these two narratives, with one major subgenre of AIDS novel presenting narratives of personal illness, decline, and death, and a second focusing on epidemic "spread." These novels also question the narrative structures upon which they depend, intervening particularly against the homophobia of those structures, though also sometimes reinforcing it.
Book News Annotation:
An examination of AIDS fiction revealing how AIDS discourses have
shaped society's understanding of the disease. Kruger (Queens
College, City U. of New York) analyzes scientific texts, arguing that
their language has made AIDS an exclusively gendered, gay disease.
From this vantage point, he critically examines the literary fiction
which has "spread" from the medical discourse, including the work of
John Weir and Sarah Schulman. The bibliography is exceptional in
scope containing nearly 1000 entries covering AIDS discourse in
anthologies, fiction, poetry, drama/performance, and nonfiction.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Description:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-380) and index.
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