In 1981, as the AIDS epidemic began to unfold into a narrative, Gaetan Dugas, a Canadian flight steward, was mistakenly labeled Patient Zero. William Darrow, a behavioral scientist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, began categorizing, at first geopgraphically, cases of an illness still suffering of its numerous misnomers: gay cancer, the gay plague and GRID (gay related immune deficiency), wherein Gaetan Dugas, Patient “O”—as in “outside of California”—became Patient Zero. Gaetan Dugas died of AIDS complications in 1984 but the character and politically perpetuated metaphor of Patient Zero became, through the stories of journalist and LGBTQ activist Randy Shilts, a flagship marker of the catastrophic epidemic it largely came to misrepresent.

The rhetorical permissions language and accompanying visual and cinematic representation allows us in experiencing, dictating, explicating, catastrophizing, romanticizing and even exploiting a crisis, and illness in particular, allows for what Susan Sontag calls “the language of paranoia.” HIV/AIDS as an illness both supports and undermines the gravity of metaphor—AIDS as a module of identity upends that gravity, and sharply presupposes the landscape of rhetorical representation that is possible.

What I hope to accomplish by examining this bank of primary and secondary sources which represent victimhood within and observance of the AIDS epidemic, is to produce a retroactive historical analysis that considers perspectives and points of view (patient, friend, lover, doctor, journalist, civilian audience) against the modules of representation that have brought the HIV/AIDS crisis into full view by way of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, journalism (including obituaries that span the decades**), film, drama, and visual art.

As I read and consider the variety of sources on this list, both primary and critical, I will also analyze the role of identity markers, both whole and fractured—what does it mean to have witnessed or experienced this crisis with considerations to gender, sexual orientation, race, privilege, socioeconomic status, geographical location, age, occupation and religion. Differences in aesthetic, rhetoric, bias, and intention are to be considered alongside differences between genres and between the groups of decades that have allowed for the evolution of how HIV/AIDS victimhood is publicly and privately observed and bespoken. Does representation limit or deepen understanding? Does representation limit or rectify the experience?

PRIMARY SOURCES

• Charles, Jos. Feeld / Jos Charles. First ed., 2018. (POETRY)

• Costas, et al. Angels in America HBO Films Presents an Avenue Pictures Production, a Mike Nichols Film ; Produced by Celia Costas ; Screenplay by Tony Kushner ; Directed by Mike Nichols. Widescreen ed., HBO Video, 2004. (FILM)

• Chase, Clifford. The Hurry-Up Song. Harper Collins: 1995. 1st Edition. (MEMOIR)

• Cuadros, Gil. City of God. San Francisco: City Lights, 1994. (POETRY/FICTION)

• Demme, et al. Philadelphia TriStar Pictures Presents a Clinica Estetico Production ; Written by Ron Nyswaner ; Produced by Edward Saxon and Jonathan Demme ; Directed by Jonathan Demme. Columbia TriStar Home Video, 2000. (FILM)

• Dlugos, Tim. “G-9.” A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos. Nightboat Books: 2011. (POETRY)

• Delany, Samuel R. “Tales of Plagues and Carnivals.” Flight from Nevèryön / Samuel R. Delany. Wesleyan University Press : University Press of New England, 1994. (FICTION)

• Dent, Tory. HIV, Mon Amour. Sheep Meadow Press: 1999. (POETRY)

• Dent, Tory. Black Milk : Poems / Tory Dent. Sheep Meadow Press ; Distributed by University Press of New England, 2005. (POETRY)

• Doty, Mark. My Alexandria : Poems / by Mark Doty. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1993. Print. National Poetry Ser. (POETRY)

• Horton, Hunter, Thompson, Horton, Randall, Hunter, M. L., and Thompson, Becky W. Fingernails across the Chalkboard : Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora / Edited by Randall Horton, M.L. Hunter, Becky Thompson ; with a Foreward by Haki R. Madhubuti. Chicago: Third World, 2007. Print. (POETRY)

• Haring, Keith. Babies / Keith Haring. 1st ed., Bulfinch Press Book/Little, Brown and Co., 2000. (ART)

• Hersch, Fred. Good Things Happen Slowly : a Life in and out of Jazz / Fred Hersch. First ed., 2017. (MEMOIR)

• Howard, Billy. Epitaphs for the Living: Words and Images in the time of Aids. Southern Methodist University: 1989. 1st Edition. (PHOTOGRAPHY/NONFICTION)

• Hunter, B M. Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of Aids. New York, NY: Other Countries Press, 1993. Print. (POETRY/FICTION/NONFICTION)

• Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996. Print. (FICTION)

• Kolossa, Alexandra. Haring (Basic Art Series 2.0). TASCHEN, 2019. Print. (ART)

• Kerr, M. E., et al. Night Kites / M.E. Kerr. -. 1st ed., Harper & Row, 1986. (FICTION)

• Klein, Michael. Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to AIDS. Crown Publishers, 1989. (POETRY)

• Klein, McCann, Klein, Michael, and McCann, Richard. Things Shaped in Passing : More "poets for Life" Writing from the AIDS Pandemic / Edited by Michael Klein and Richard McCann. 1st ed. New York: Persea, 1997. (POETRY)

• Kramer, Larry. The Normal Heart / by Larry Kramer ; with an Introduction by Andrew Holleran and a Foreword by Joseph Papp. New American Library, 1985. (PLAY)

• Krauss, Dan. 5B. RYOT, 2018. (DOCUMENTARY)

• Kushner, Tony., et al. Angels in America : a Gay Fantasia on National Themes / Tony Kushner. Revised ed., 2013. (PLAY)

• Livingston, et al. Paris Is Burning a Production of Off White Productions, Inc. ; Produced and Directed by Jennie Livingston ; Co-Producer, Barry Swimar ; Executive Producers, Nigel Finch, Davis Lacy. Miramax Home Entertainment, 2005.

• Liu, Timothy. Burnt Offerings / Timothy Liu. Copper Canyon Press, 1995. (POETRY)

• Makkai, Rebecca. The Great Believers / Rebecca Makkai. 2018. (FICTION)

• Mars-Jones, Adam. Monopolies of Loss / Adam Mars-Jones. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1993. (FICTION)

• Monette, Paul. Afterlife / by Paul Monette. 1st ed. New York: Crown, 1990. Print. (FICTION)

• Monette, Paul. Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog. New York: St. Martin’s, 1988. Print. (POETRY)

• Murphy, et al. The Normal Heart / HBO Films Presents ; a Plan B Entertainment Production ; a Blumhouse Production ; in Association with Ryan Murphy Productions ; Produced by Scott Ferguson ; Screenplay by Larry Kramer ; Directed by Ryan Murphy. 2014. (FILM)

• Murphy, Ryan, director. 2019. Pose. Season 2, episode 4. “Never Knew Love Like This Before.” Written by Ryan Murphy and Janet Mock. Aired October 30, 2019. FX Networks.

• Poe, Edgar Allan, and David. Plunkert. “The Masque of the Red Death.” Edgar Allan Poe : Stories & Poems / Illustrated by David Plunkert. 2017. (FICTION)

• Powell, D. A. Repast : Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails / D.A. Powell. 2014. (POETRY)

• Preston, J. (Ed.). (1985b). Hot living: Erotic stories about safer sex. Boston, MA: Alyson Publications, 1985. (FICTION)

• Sanchez, Sonia. Does Your House Have Lions? / Sonia Sanchez. Beacon Press, 1997. (POETRY)

• Sapphire. Push : a Novel / by Sapphire. 1st ed., Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1996. (FICTION)

• Sidibe, et al. Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire / Lions Gate Films, Inc. 2009. (FILM)

• Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played on : Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic / Randy Shilts. New York: St. Martin's, 1987. (JOURNALISM)

• Smith, Danez. Don't Call Us Dead. Graywolf Press: 2017. (POETRY)

• Smith, Danez. Insert [Boy]. Yes Yes Books: 2016. (POETRY)

• Sontag, Susan, and Howard Hodgkin. The Way We Live Now / Susan Sontag ; [Etchings by] Howard Hodgkins. 1st American ed., Noonday Press, 1991. (FICTION/ART)

• Vallée, et al. Dallas Buyers Club. Focus Features and Truth Entertainment Present; a Voltage Pictures/R2 Films/Evolution Independent/CE Production ; Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée; Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack ; Produced by Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter. Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2014. (FILM)

SECONDARY SOURCES

• Allen, Rika. “Art Activism in South Africa and the Ethics of Representation in a Time of AIDS.” Critical Arts-A Journal Of South-North Cultural And Media Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, 2009, pp. 396–415.

• Isola, Mark John. “‘The String of This One Story’: Erotica, HIV, and the Construction of Safe Sex in Gay Male Popular Memory.” Journal of Homosexuality: Special Issue on HIV/AIDS Culture, vol. 60, no. 8, 2013, pp. 1185–1219.

• Kruger, Steven F. AIDS Narratives : Gender and Sexuality, Fiction and Science / Steven F. Kruger. 1996.

• Landau, Deborah. “‘How to Live. What to Do.": The Poetics and Politics of AIDS.” American Literature, vol. 68, no. 1, 1996, pp. 193–225.

• Michaels, Walter Ben. The Beauty of a Social Problem. University of Chicago Press, 2016.

• Murphy, Timothy F., and Suzanne. Poirier. Writing AIDS : Gay Literature, Language, and Analysis / Timothy F. Murphy and Suzanne Poirier, Editors. Columbia University Press, 1993.

• Pastore, Judith Laurence. Confronting AIDS through Literature : the Responsibilities of Representation / Edited by Judith Laurence Pastore. University of Illinois Press, 1993.

• Rosenzweig, Leah. “Cause of Death” Uncovering the hidden history of AIDS on the New York Times Obituary Page.” Slate Magazine: November 2018. Web.

• Sandoval-Snchez, Alberto. “Politicizing Abjection: In the Manner of a Prologue for the Articulation of AIDS Latino Queer Identities.” American Literary History, vol. 17, no. 3, 2005, pp. 542–549.

• Sontag, Susan. Aids and Its Metaphors / Susan Sontag. 1st ed., Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988.

• Venkatesan, Sathyaraj, and Gokulnath Ammanathil. AIDS in Cultural Bodies : Scripting the Absent Subject (1980-2010) / by Sathyaraj Venkatesan and Gokulnath Ammanathil. 2016.

• Woolf, Virginia. On Being Ill / by Virginia Woolf ; Introduction by Hermione Lee. Paris Press, 2002.

• Zuo, Mila. “Bodies, Blood, and Love: the 'Touching' Politics of HIV/AIDS Film Love for Life.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, vol. 9, no. 3, 2015, pp. 204–222.