Abstract
This thesis investigates the representational evolution of gay men and the HIV/AIDS crisis in the US and the UK. While there has been much academic research into HIV/AIDS and its representation on screen, no studies have presented a chronological analysis that focuses on different eras of AIDS media, from the crisis itself to contemporary memorialisation of it.The primary aim of this original work is to explain how representation within these contexts has had a consistent relationship with notions of mainstream, whether it be through their widespread audience reception or through their adoption of popular, familiar modes of cinema, such as melodrama. With carefully selected examples from film and television, and evaluations of their production contexts, I recognise key similarities and differences in how AIDS is represented by heteronormative/queer media producers. I make the case for an expanded definition of mainstream, away from assumptions of heteronormativity.
Throughout this thesis, I adopt a primary methodology of socio-historical-political contextualisation to analyse how past representations of the AIDS crisis have shaped representations of the present. Another key methodology is textual analysis of case studies in the following categories: ‘gay AIDS melodramas’ of the 1980s and 1990s; ‘gay/queer AIDS melodramas’ of the 1980s; anti-normative, New Queer Cinema AIDS texts of the 1990s; and contemporary ‘radical mainstream’ AIDS texts (2018-2021). This thesis builds on existing bodies of work on HIV/AIDS and its cultural representation, and influential methods, such as ‘gaze’ theory, to trace the history of queer transformations of AIDS on screen. In an era of greater LGBTQ+ representation on mainstream film and television, gay men are now agents and protagonists of their own stories.
| Date of Award | 24 Mar 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Deborah Shaw (Supervisor), Ben Davies (Supervisor) & Yael Friedman-Silver (Supervisor) |