Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
A Note on the Text xiii
Prologue 1
AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification 11
The Burdens of History: Gender and Representation in AIDS Discourse,
1981–1988 42
AIDS and HIV Infection in the Third World: A First World Chronicle 99
Seduced and Terrorized: AIDS in the Media 127
AIDS, HIV, and the Cultural Construction of Reality 149
AIDS Narratives on Television: Whose Story? 176
AIDS, Africa, and Cultural Theory 205
Beyond Cosmo: AIDS, Identity, and Inscriptions of Gender 235
How to Have Theory in an Epidemic: The Evolution of AIDS, Treatment, and Activism 278
Epilogue 315
Notes 331
Bibliography 387
Index 453

About the Author

Paula A. Treichler is a professor at the University of Illinois, where she holds positions in the College of Medicine, the Institute of Communications Research, and the Women’s Studies Program. Her writings on AIDS have appeared in such journals as Science, ArtForum, October, Transition, and Camera Obscura. She is the coauthor of Language, Gender, and Professional Writing and A Feminist Dictionary and the coeditor of For Alma Mater,Cultural Studies , and The Visible Woman.

Reviews

"During the 1980s the cultural theorist Paula Treichler published a series of provocative and significant articles deconstructing how the new AIDS epidemic was being invented. Several of her pieces have had a lasting impact on our understanding of the multiple meanings of AIDS, in particular her concept of AIDS as 'an epidemic of signification'. A decade later she has brought these writings together with a new prologue and some concluding remarks in a book."--Sexualities, 3 (3) "Looking backward and ahead, How to have theory in an epidemic is nothing short of a handbook of the meaning of AIDS: as human experience, as political reality, as public service action, and, not least, as moral engagement with one of the great challenges to meaning-making and unmaking in everyday life." Dr Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University "Paula Treichler's essays are certainly among the most significant written on the subject of AIDS. They are, in fact, a model of what the field of cultural studies at its best can contribute to our thinking about urgent social and political issues. This is an essential book, one that will strongly affect the way people approach the subject of AIDS in the future." Douglas Crimp, author of AIDS: Demo Graphics "[an] excellent example of how commitment can be combined with academic writing ... to be recommended."--Social History of Medicine, Vol 14, No 1, 2001 "[an] excellent example of how commitment can be combined with academic writing ... to be recommended."--Social History of Medicine, Vol 14, No 1, 2001