Overview

Drawing attention to the existence in France of an AIDS literature from 1985 to 1988, before AIDS became either a wildly recognised genre or a culturally influential form of writing, this predominately critical literary study is informed by gender studies and psychoanalytic criticism in its readings of individual texts. Interwoven with contextual information, the book provides sympathetic readings of courageous writers who have been unfairly criticised, like Dreuilhe, or forgotten like Simonin, or like Aron, never properly understood.

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9780853235781

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Professor Boule's readings of specific texts are alert and frequently shrewd. The issues he has addressed are important ones: his emphasis on the position of women in French AIDS literature is valuable; his psychoanalytic characterizations - particularly of Simonin and Dreuilhe - underscore a dimension of the experience of AIDS people that has rarely been acknowledged or explored.

Professor Boule's readings of specific texts are alert and frequently shrewd. The issues he has addressed are important ones: his emphasis on the position of women in French AIDS literature is valuable; his psychoanalytic characterizations - particularly of Simonin and Dreuilhe - underscore a dimension of the experience of AIDS people that has rarely been acknowledged or explored. -- Ross Chambers University of Michigan

His book is a welcome exploration, via some largely neglected if not completely forgotten texts, of an episode in French social and cultural history that - like Vichy before it - many people today seem quite anxious to forget. HIV Stories casts a strong light, from an unexpected angle, on what made those years, for many people, such a disastrous time. - Professor Ross Chambers, Marvin Felheim, distinguished University Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan

Author Information

Jean Pierre Boule is Professor of Contemporary French Studies at Nottingham Trent University.

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