The AIDS Movie: Representing a Pandemic in Film and Television

ISBN-13: 9780789011084 / Angielski / Miękka / 2000 / 136 str.

Kylo-Patrick R. Hart

Opis

Going beyond the current media research, The AIDS Movie extends the systematic study of media representations of AIDS to include American movies, discussing the ongoing social construction and reconstruction of the AIDS pandemic through film. This study proposes criteria for identifying an AIDS movie and analyzes the representation of AIDS in nearly three dozen such films, all made within the first two decades of the AIDS pandemic. Analysis focuses on social ramifications for gay men and all members of American society; the concept of otherness; and alternative ways of representing AIDS in movies, including AIDS-metaphor films and AIDS documentaries. This book will be suitable for students and academics in the fields of media, popular culture, gay/lesbian studies, and sociology, as well as anyone else interested in learning more about AIDS in movies.

Spis treści

Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Conceptualizing the AIDS Movie and Its Study
• AIDS, Social Construction, and Media Representation
• Defining and Analyzing the AIDS Movie
• Significance of the Study
• Chapter 2. The Cinematic Tradition of Otherness Meets AIDS
• Otherness, Science Fiction, and AIDS
• Otherness, Melodrama, and AIDS
• Other Forms of Otherness and AIDS
• Chapter 3. “Us” versus “Them”: “Innocent Victims” and the Politics of Victim Blaming
• “Villains” and “Innocent Victims”
• The Process of Victim Blaming in AIDS Movies
• Chapter 4. Gay Men as “The (Primary) Other” in the AIDS Movie
• The Persistent Representational Link Between Gay Men and AIDS: Opportunities, Shortcomings, and Consequences for Gay Males
• Consequences of the Persistent Representational Link Between Gay Men and AIDS for Members of Other Social Groups
• Chapter 5. AIDS and the City (versus the Country)
• The City as Gay Utopia and AIDS Dystopia
• The Country as Balm to City-Dwelling “Deviants”
• Chapter 6. Other Ways of Representing AIDS
• The Form and Function of AIDS Characters in Non-AIDS Movies
• AIDS Metaphor Movies
• Self-Representation in AIDS Documentaries
• The (Near) Future of Representing AIDS
• Appendix A: Complete List of AIDS Movies Complied
• Appendix B: List of AIDS Movies Analyzed in This Study
• References
• Index

O autorze

Kylo-Patrick R Hart