
HIV/AIDS and the Stage
Politics and Performance in Neoliberal Times
Louisa Hann(Author)
Liverpool University Press
Published on 1. November 2024
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-83553-759-6 (ISBN)
Description
Ebook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open initiative.
Theater and performance have played vital political and pedagogical roles in the history of HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism in the Global North. From the shoestring dissident work of the 1980s and 1990s to contemporary educational plays challenging extant stigma surrounding HIV, the stage has long provided a space for identificatory community and activism. However, the nature and purpose of HIV/AIDS theatre has changed significantly over the past four decades or so. While the introduction of anti-retroviral therapies in the 1990s altered the trajectory of the pandemic and positively impacted many lives, the simultaneous consolidation of neoliberal hegemony generated a range of new and heightened challenges for theater makers, activists, and advocates hoping to improve the lives of people with HIV. Drawing on cultural materialist and Western Marxist traditions - most notably Gramscian political theory - this book examines the extent to which the stage has been able to offer a space for counterhegemony in the context of the pandemic. In establishing a genealogy of HIV/AIDS theater that incorporates both close dramaturgical analysis and wider materialist considerations, it elucidates how neoliberalism has established an ever-stronger grip on the genre and its messaging. In so doing, it poses wider questions about theater's role as a political strategy in the contemporary context of neoliberal hegemonic crisis.
Theater and performance have played vital political and pedagogical roles in the history of HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism in the Global North. From the shoestring dissident work of the 1980s and 1990s to contemporary educational plays challenging extant stigma surrounding HIV, the stage has long provided a space for identificatory community and activism. However, the nature and purpose of HIV/AIDS theatre has changed significantly over the past four decades or so. While the introduction of anti-retroviral therapies in the 1990s altered the trajectory of the pandemic and positively impacted many lives, the simultaneous consolidation of neoliberal hegemony generated a range of new and heightened challenges for theater makers, activists, and advocates hoping to improve the lives of people with HIV. Drawing on cultural materialist and Western Marxist traditions - most notably Gramscian political theory - this book examines the extent to which the stage has been able to offer a space for counterhegemony in the context of the pandemic. In establishing a genealogy of HIV/AIDS theater that incorporates both close dramaturgical analysis and wider materialist considerations, it elucidates how neoliberalism has established an ever-stronger grip on the genre and its messaging. In so doing, it poses wider questions about theater's role as a political strategy in the contemporary context of neoliberal hegemonic crisis.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83553-759-6 (9781835537596)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Louisa Hann gained a PhD in English and American Studies from the University of Manchester in 2021. She has published work on HIV/AIDS memorialization and the political economy of documentary theater, and regularly hosts interviews on the New Books Network's Critical Theory channel.
Content
Introduction: Theater, HIV/AIDS, and the neoliberal revolution
Chapter 1: The nostalgic commodification of HIV/AIDS theater
Chapter 2: Second-generation HIV/AIDS theater
Chapter 3: Race and Absence in HIV/AIDS Theater
Chapter 4: HIV/AIDS Theater as Public Health Measure
Chapter 5: Funding HIV/AIDS Theater
Chapter 6: HIV/AIDS Theater and Progressive Neoliberalism
Conclusion: HIV/AIDS theater in the era of COVID-19
Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1: The nostalgic commodification of HIV/AIDS theater
Chapter 2: Second-generation HIV/AIDS theater
Chapter 3: Race and Absence in HIV/AIDS Theater
Chapter 4: HIV/AIDS Theater as Public Health Measure
Chapter 5: Funding HIV/AIDS Theater
Chapter 6: HIV/AIDS Theater and Progressive Neoliberalism
Conclusion: HIV/AIDS theater in the era of COVID-19
Bibliography
Index