{"id":{"repo_id":"unt","oai_identifier":"info:ark/67531/metadc2600"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/unt/info:ark/67531/metadc2600","repository":{"repo_id":"unt","name":"University of North Texas","base_url":"https://digital.library.unt.edu/oai/"},"display":{"title":"The Evolution of AIDS as Subject Matter in Select American Dramas","abstract":"Dramatic works from America with AIDS as subject matter have evolved over the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, dramas like Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Chesley's Night Sweat educated primarily homosexual men about AIDS, its causes, and its effects on the gay community while combating the dominant discourse promoted by the media, government, and medical establishments that AIDS was either unimportant because it affected primarily the homosexual population or because it was attributed to lack of personal responsibility. By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's \"Andre's Mother\" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as \"special,\" nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is \"no day but today\" (\"Finale\"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community.","abstract_html":"Dramatic works from America with AIDS as subject matter have evolved over the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, dramas like Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Chesley's Night Sweat educated primarily homosexual men about AIDS, its causes, and its effects on the gay community while combating the dominant discourse promoted by the media, government, and medical establishments that AIDS was either unimportant because it affected primarily the homosexual population or because it was attributed to lack of personal responsibility. By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's "Andre's Mother" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as "special," nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is "no day but today" ("Finale"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sorrells, David J."],"institution":"University of North Texas","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Baird, James L.","Ross, John Robert, 1938-","Tanner, James T. F."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2000,"date_issued":"2000-08","date_published":"2000-08","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:34:52Z","subjects":["AIDS (Disease) in literature.","American drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism.","Homosexuality and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.","AIDS","America","Jonathan Larson","rent"],"languages":["English"],"rights":["Public","Copyright","Sorrells, David J.","Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["oclc: 47734016","untcat: b2306130","https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2600/","ark: ark:/67531/metadc2600"],"render_values":[{"text":"oclc: 47734016","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"untcat: b2306130","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2600/","href":"https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2600/","code":true},{"text":"ark: ark:/67531/metadc2600","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.12794/metadc2600","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Baird, James L.","Ross, John Robert, 1938-","Tanner, James T. 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By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's \"Andre's Mother\" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as \"special,\" nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is \"no day but today\" (\"Finale\"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["Text"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Evolution of AIDS as Subject Matter in Select American Dramas"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Baird, James L.","Ross, John Robert, 1938-","Tanner, James T. F."],"dc:creator":["Sorrells, David J."],"dc:date":["2000-08"],"dc:description":["Dramatic works from America with AIDS as subject matter have evolved over the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, dramas like Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Chesley's Night Sweat educated primarily homosexual men about AIDS, its causes, and its effects on the gay community while combating the dominant discourse promoted by the media, government, and medical establishments that AIDS was either unimportant because it affected primarily the homosexual population or because it was attributed to lack of personal responsibility. By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's \"Andre's Mother\" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as \"special,\" nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is \"no day but today\" (\"Finale\"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community."],"dc:format":["Text"],"dc:identifier":["oclc: 47734016","untcat: b2306130","doi: 10.12794/metadc2600","https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2600/","ark: ark:/67531/metadc2600"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:publisher":["University of North Texas"],"dc:rights":["Public","Copyright","Sorrells, David J.","Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved."],"dc:subject":["AIDS (Disease) in literature.","American drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism.","Homosexuality and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.","AIDS","America","Jonathan Larson","rent"],"dc:title":["The Evolution of AIDS as Subject Matter in Select American Dramas"],"dc:type":["Thesis or Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:34:52Z"}