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Queering narratives of HIV/AIDS suffering: cultural representations at the dawn of the 2020s

Bollas, Angelos orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-2594-8215 (2022) Queering narratives of HIV/AIDS suffering: cultural representations at the dawn of the 2020s. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
This study analyses contemporary cultural representations of HIV/AIDS suffering in the English-speaking global North from screen to celebrity activism and activist campaigns. In doing so, it aims to provide an understanding of whether and how subverting, or queering, cultural discourses around HIV/AIDS suffering can be achieved. In the last couple of years, there has been a change in the way HIV/AIDS is portrayed in popular culture (e.g. Pose, It's a Sin). Rather than offering a nostalgic – and arguably stigmatising – history of the virus, I argue that we have started being presented with mainstream productions which change/queer the way in which HIV/AIDS suffering is represented. We are soon approaching the end of the fourth decade with HIV/AIDS. During the crisis years 1981 – 1996, popular culture treated HIV/AIDS with terror, shame, discrimination, and stigma (Caron, 2001). In 1996, antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were introduced and rendered life with HIV possible. Since then and until the beginning of the 2010s, the engagement of mainstream culture with HIV/AIDS was significantly minimised (Race, 2001). This silent period came to an end in the 2010s when a renewed interest in HIV/AIDS emerged in popular media and culture (Kagan, 2018). Since the outbreak of the epidemic, numerous academic studies analyse cultural representations of HIV/AIDS arguing that these representations are dictated by heteronormative and homonormative hegemonies aiming at pathologizing non-heterosexual identities (Becker, 2006). My claim is that since 2018 we have been presented with new, queer narratives of HIV/AIDS suffering which reverse the stigmatising discourses that have been associated with the people who live with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). This investigation provides a queer reading of cultural texts; in particular it focuses on media texts, discussing the ways in which HIV/AIDS suffering is queered in an attempt to de-stigmatise PLWHA.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:November 2022
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Imbert, Jean-Philippe and Fryatt, Kit
Uncontrolled Keywords:HIV; AIDS; Hegemony; Television; Suffering; Trauma; Representation; Masculinity; Shame
Subjects:Humanities > Film studies
Humanities > Culture
Social Sciences > Communication
Social Sciences > Mass media
Social Sciences > Sociology
Social Sciences > Gender
Social Sciences > Identity
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
ID Code:26665
Deposited On:11 Nov 2022 13:57 by Jean-Philippe Imbert . Last Modified 25 Nov 2022 13:33
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