Thesis Format
Monograph
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Franke, Mark F. N.
Abstract
“Another Possibility: HIV and the Contemporary Moment” addresses possibilities for political participation and HIV activism in a post-antiretroviral world. With advancing medical technologies rendering viral loads undetectable for HIV positive persons and with increasingly prevalent use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as prevention technique for HIV negative persons comes the opportunity for a renewed understanding of the epidemic. Against the grain of nostalgic framings of activism prompted by the immanence of death, this dissertation outlines possibilities for new forms of political participation because of, not in spite of, the becoming-chronic of HIV.
Global movements including U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable) messaging, referring to the impossibility of transmitting the virus after suppression, and PrEP activism, referring to a medication which prevents HIV negative people from acquiring the virus, provide opportunities for rethinking relationalities between queer bodies. While queer theory is currently wrestling with those relations in sexual terms, this dissertation asks how U=U and PrEP change who is, or more accurately who can be, invited to HIV political participation in the queer North American context. How does undetectability change how queer bodies are imagined—against a historical backdrop of toxicity—in a broader political context and across lines of serostatus? How might participation be understood in a dawning era of ‘gay normalcy’? Termed ‘living before a virus,’ I outline the political implications of reversing the traditional logic of HIV: pill consumption before transmission, and the admission of potential viral presence during sex without fear. These two ideas, unimaginable until recently, not only re-place queer bodies in new form(s) of relation, but in obligation to each other ‘before a virus.’
Translating that obligation, however, into a political project is no easy feat. Opportunities for activism presented by U=U and PrEP are dulled by rising economic precarity and a queer political agenda working in tandem with neoliberal economics. “Another Possibility,” within contexts of mass media and the attention economy, the becoming-chronic of HIV, and emergent medical technologies attempts to locate opportunities for participation within the realm of uncertainty. In essence: how does the unknowability of HIV—when HIV is no longer a death sentence, when diverse bodies experience HIV, when media attention to HIV is deliberately confusing, when queer bodies are capitalized—actually lend itself to activism?
“Another Possibility” draws strongly from the work of Jean-Luc Nancy (“The Intruder,” Being Singular Plural), Judith Butler (Giving an Account of Oneself, Dispossession, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly), and Lauren Berlant (Cruel Optimism), as well as a score of emergent young queer thinkers ready to take up the call to ‘rethink HIV.’ “Another Possibility” is deeply rooted in contemporary political theory, particularly new understandings of participation, as it intersects with queer theory, critical race theory, media theory, viral politics, studies on barebacking, performance studies including dance, and queer autobiography.
Summary for Lay Audience
“Another Possibility: HIV and the Contemporary Moment” addresses possibilities for political participation and HIV activism in a post-antiretroviral world. With advancing medical technologies rendering viral loads undetectable for HIV positive persons and with increasingly prevalent use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as prevention technique for HIV negative persons comes the opportunity for a renewed understanding of the epidemic. Against the grain of nostalgic framings of activism prompted by the immanence of death, this dissertation outlines possibilities for new forms of political participation because of, not in spite of, the becoming-chronic of HIV.
Global movements including U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable) messaging, referring to the impossibility of transmitting the virus after suppression, and PrEP activism, referring to a medication which prevents HIV negative people from acquiring the virus, provide opportunities for rethinking relationalities between queer bodies. While queer theory is currently wrestling with those relations in sexual terms, this dissertation asks how U=U and PrEP change who is, or more accurately who can be, invited to HIV political participation in the queer North American context. How does undetectability change how queer bodies are imagined—against a historical backdrop of toxicity—in a broader political context and across lines of serostatus? How might participation be understood in a dawning era of ‘gay normalcy’? Termed ‘living before a virus,’ I outline the political implications of reversing the traditional logic of HIV: pill consumption before transmission, and the admission of potential viral presence during sex without fear. These two ideas, unimaginable until recently, not only re-place queer bodies in new form(s) of relation, but in obligation to each other ‘before a virus.’
Translating that obligation, however, into a political project is no easy feat. Opportunities for activism presented by U=U and PrEP are dulled by rising economic precarity and a queer political agenda working in tandem with neoliberal economics. “Another Possibility,” within contexts of mass media and the attention economy, the becoming-chronic of HIV, and emergent medical technologies attempts to locate opportunities for participation within the realm of uncertainty. In essence: how does the unknowability of HIV—when HIV is no longer a death sentence, when diverse bodies experience HIV, when media attention to HIV is deliberately confusing, when queer bodies are capitalized—actually lend itself to activism?
“Another Possibility” draws strongly from the work of Jean-Luc Nancy (“The Intruder,” Being Singular Plural), Judith Butler (Giving an Account of Oneself, Dispossession, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly), and Lauren Berlant (Cruel Optimism), as well as a score of emergent young queer thinkers ready to take up the call to ‘rethink HIV.’ “Another Possibility” is deeply rooted in contemporary political theory, particularly new understandings of participation, as it intersects with queer theory, critical race theory, media theory, viral politics, studies on barebacking, performance studies including dance, and queer autobiography.
Recommended Citation
Halse, Matthew, "Another Possibility: HIV and the Contemporary Moment" (2020). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6983.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6983
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