Against AIDS and its Metaphors: From Gay Fear to Power in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart

反抗愛滋及其隱喻：賴瑞．克雷默《正常心》中同志恐懼與重獲力量

張素蓁(Su-chen Chang)

《美和學報》 36卷1期 (2017/05) Pp. 59-80

摘要

Larry Kramer's Tony-winning play, The Normal Heart, based on historical events during the outbreak of AIDS, portrays the New York gay community's indictment under the social prejudice and governmental indifference to the crisis. By presenting the gay community's struggles to raise public attention to the disease and the gay activists' fight for their own rights, the play discloses how and why AIDS and gay people have continuously been stigmatized and criminalized by medical reports, mass media, and governmental institutions. As Susan Sontag points out, AIDS is not just a disease but replete with punitive metaphors, which are socially and culturally constructed in order to condemn the disease as the result of perversity and moral degradation. The metaphors associated with AIDS stigmatize those who are affected and thus often inhibit them from seeking proper medical treatment. Only when the metaphors are rejected, the patients will be able to resist the disease. Following Sontag's argument, this study will examine the playwright's attempt to demystify such socio-cultural metaphor of AIDS, and also discuss how the playwright challenges the dominant AIDS discourse. Finally, the study will demonstrate that the play functions to help eliminate the prejudice against persons with AIDS and empower the gendered Others against the stigmatization of AIDS and its metaphors.

關鍵字

Larry Kramer ； The Normal Heart ； AIDS ； Gay fear ； Catharsis of theater

並列摘要

賴瑞．克雷默（Larry Kramer）之東尼獎得獎作品《正常心》（The Normal Heart），以愛滋病爆發時期作為戲劇背景，描寫美國紐約同志社群，在社會偏見及政府漠視下，所發出的憤怒與控訴。透過舞台劇方式，呈現同志社群的痛苦掙扎，同時揭發愛滋病患如何長期遭受媒體，醫療及政府組織的汙名化與罪犯化，藉以喚起大眾對該疾病的注意，並為同志族群爭取權益。蘇珊．桑塔格（Susan Sontag）曾指出，愛滋病不僅是一種疾病，也隱含著具有懲罰意味的隱喻。她認為各種與愛滋病有關的隱喻汙名化HIV感染者，也因此阻礙了他們尋求適當的醫療照顧，唯有在愛滋隱喻完全破除後，病患才有勇氣對抗疾病。本文即以桑塔格的論述為基礎，檢視本劇如何挑戰愛滋病的主流論述，為愛滋病除汙名化，並論證本劇的情感淨化功能，給予性別他者對抗愛滋汙名及其隱喻的勇氣。

並列關鍵字

賴瑞．克雷默 ； 《正常心》 ； 愛滋病 ； 同志恐懼 ； 戲劇中的情感淨化

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