Non-Fiction, Health, Wellness, AIDS, HIV, Art, Artists, Theory, LGBT Studies, Activism, United States, North American 

Aids is an acronym that was largely unknown only a decade ago. Today Aids has meaning for virtually everyone in the western world. But the nature of its meaning varies wildly, from the stark reality faced by people infected by the HIV virus and those who love them to those who encounter Aids only as a 'plague' hysterically exploited in the media. In between lies a range of expression about Aids in the art, literature, drama, film, and critical theory. In this volume, an international group of contributors discuss the exchange ideas across lines of liberalism and radicalism, art and theory, social realities and political agendas. In the process they raise difficult questions: How does the vocabulary of Aids shape popular concaption about HIV infection? How can we counter the response to Aids that equates sex with death and health with piety? What is the impact of Aids on gay identity? Since Aids first became known to the general public ten years ago, its medical and political aspects have largely eclipsed the spiritual and cultural dimensions. These essays address that imbalance. They consider the impact of Aids, not only on the bodies of persons with HIV infection, but on the hearts and minds of us all. (Klappentext).