AEGiS-BKREV: Writing AIDS: Gay Literature, Language, and Analysis

Writing AIDS: Gay Literature, Language, and Analysis

Columbia University Press, 562 W 113th St, New York, NY 10025. 352p., bibliog., index. (Between Men--Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies). ISBN 0-231-07864-1. $29.50. (Contributors to this volume: Emily Apter, Univ. of California, Davis; Peter M. Bowen, Rutgers Univ.; Franklin Brooks, Vanderbilt Univ.; Joseph Cady, Univ. of Rochester Medical School; John Clum, Duke Univ.; Richard Dellamora, Trent Univ., Petersborough, Ontario; Lee Edelman, Tufts Univ.; Sander L. Gilman, Cornell Univ.; Phillip B. Harper, Harvard Univ.; James W. Jones, Central Michigan Univ.; James Miller, Univ. of Western Ontario; Timothy F. Murphy, Univ. of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago; Suzanne Poirier, Univ. of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago; Michael S. Sherry, Northwestern Univ.; Paula A. Treichler, Univ. of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana)
Edited by Timothy F. Murphy, Suzanne Poirier. 1993.

According to John M. Clum, AIDS "is the linkings of sex=disease, homosexuality=disease, promiscuity=disease, and, finally, homosexuality=promiscuity=disease, that enchain people with AIDS and, by association, all gay men." "Writing AIDS is an examination of how those equations are being rejected or rewritten in a healing way in today's writing about the epidemic in the literary presses, obituary columns, and even freshman compositions." The editors have brought together a group of contributors who have written essays that each identify a different look at AIDS in the literature. They have done a marvelous job at creating a book that once picked up to read, is hard to put down until each essay has been read through, maybe more than once. It should be pointed out, that "Whatever their positions, however, these writers maintain that the strength of the literature they champion lies in its ability to (re)affirm gay existence, self-respect, and love, an assertion that is a central theme of the essays."

These essays cover a wide range of content from the language that is used to describe AIDS to teaching AIDS 101 where students write about their knowledge of AIDS and how it affects them to how AIDS is depicted in the media to pointing out how AIDS is not mentioned in recent American gay erotic fiction. These essays are well written and scholarly, providing the reader much to contemplate and include bibliographies for additional reading. The editors point out that many novelists, journalists, and screenwriters still see the writing about AIDS as an option. "In a very real sense, all writing today is AIDS writing in that it must consciously choose how to respond to the epidemic, whether by direct involvement or evasion. Moreover, this involvement by an increasing diversity of writers raises the possibility of a unity of effort and concern that is encouraged or foreseen by several of the contributors to this collection." It is aptly pointed out that "Gay men, either as authors or subjects, dominate the written word in the literature of the epidemic." That, however, does not mean that others have not written about AIDS, as these essays so carefully show.

For the researcher there is an "Annotated Bibliography of AIDS Literature, 1982-91" that is broken down into fiction, poetry, drama, biography and autobiography, and essays, criticism, and analysis. This is a highly recommended book for all level of readers from high school student to the researcher. It is a book that will make you think as you read each essay. (H. Robert Malinowsky)

Keywords: American Gays' Writings, AIDS in Literature, Homosexuality and Literature; Gays Writing

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Copyright © 1993 - The University of Illinois at Chicago. All materials in the journal are subject to copyright by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution, or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.

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