AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic
Since public discourse about AIDS began in 1981, it has
characterized AIDS as an apocalyptic plague: a punishment for sin
and a sign of the end of the world. Christian fundamentalists had
already configured the gay male population most visibly affected by
AIDS as apocalyptic signifiers or signs of the "end
times." Their discourse grew out of a centuries-old American
apocalypticism that included images of crisis, destruction, and
ultimate renewal. In this book, Thomas L. Long examines the ways in
which gay and AIDS activists, artists, writers, scientists, and
journalists appropriated this apocalyptic rhetoric in order to
mobilize attention to the medical crisis, prevent the spread of the
disease, and treat the HIV infected. Using the analytical tools of
literary analysis, cultural studies, performance theory, and social
semiotics, AIDS and American Apocalypticism examines many kinds of
discourse, including fiction, drama, performance art, demonstration
graphics and brochures, biomedical publications, and journalism and
shows that, while initially useful, the effects of apocalyptic
rhetoric in the long term are dangerous. Among the important
figures in AIDS activism and the arts discussed are David Drake,
Tim Miller, Sarah Schulman, and Tony Kushner, as well as the
organizations ACT UP and Lesbian Avengers.
