Positive Images

A tidal wave of panic surrounded homosexuality and AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s the period commonly called 'The AIDS Crisis'. With the advent of antiretroviral drugs in the mid '90s however the meaning of an HIV diagnosis radically changed. These game-changing drugs now enable many people living with HIV to lead a healthy regular life but how has this dramatic shift impacted the representation of gay men and HIV in popular culture?<br/><br/><i>Positive Images</i> is the first detailed examination of how the relationship between gay men and HIV has transformed in the past two decades. From <i>Queer as Folk</i> to <i>Chemsex</i> <i>The Line of Beauty</i> to <i>The Normal Heart</i> Dion Kagan examines literature film TV documentaries and news coverage from across the English-speaking world to unearth the socio-cultural foundations underpinning this 'post-crisis' period. His analyses provide acute insights into the fraught legacies of the AIDS Crisis and its continued presence in the modern queer consciousness.<br/>