AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances

As a counterpoint to the emerging homonormativity of the twenty-first century, this paper seeks to identify and reevaluate the potential of queer chosen families as they are cinematically mediated, and historically located, in the context of the AIDS epidemic. With Bill Sherwood’s 1986 film Parting...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nikola Stepić
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Association for American Studies 2017-03-01
Series:European Journal of American Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11761
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841558335479873536
author Nikola Stepić
author_facet Nikola Stepić
author_sort Nikola Stepić
collection DOAJ
description As a counterpoint to the emerging homonormativity of the twenty-first century, this paper seeks to identify and reevaluate the potential of queer chosen families as they are cinematically mediated, and historically located, in the context of the AIDS epidemic. With Bill Sherwood’s 1986 film Parting Glances as a case study, the paper argues that the melodramatic mode of these films, with the repetition of tropes such as caregiving, mourning and funerals, ushers an alternative mode of familiality into queer narratives and champions the queer chosen family. In this sense, it is argued that to look at the evolution of queer familial life means to look at a long process of transference of one social modality to another, and the AIDS film specifically as a place where familial relationality is emulated and transformed through relations based in love, friendship and parrhesia.
format Article
id doaj-art-d98ee1e4bb1c4c1d948e9f6ba105f9b9
institution Kabale University
issn 1991-9336
language English
publishDate 2017-03-01
publisher European Association for American Studies
record_format Article
series European Journal of American Studies
spelling doaj-art-d98ee1e4bb1c4c1d948e9f6ba105f9b92025-01-06T09:08:00ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362017-03-0111310.4000/ejas.11761AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting GlancesNikola StepićAs a counterpoint to the emerging homonormativity of the twenty-first century, this paper seeks to identify and reevaluate the potential of queer chosen families as they are cinematically mediated, and historically located, in the context of the AIDS epidemic. With Bill Sherwood’s 1986 film Parting Glances as a case study, the paper argues that the melodramatic mode of these films, with the repetition of tropes such as caregiving, mourning and funerals, ushers an alternative mode of familiality into queer narratives and champions the queer chosen family. In this sense, it is argued that to look at the evolution of queer familial life means to look at a long process of transference of one social modality to another, and the AIDS film specifically as a place where familial relationality is emulated and transformed through relations based in love, friendship and parrhesia.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11761melodramafamilydeathNew York CityparrhesiaParting Glances
spellingShingle Nikola Stepić
AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
European Journal of American Studies
melodrama
family
death
New York City
parrhesia
Parting Glances
title AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
title_full AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
title_fullStr AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
title_full_unstemmed AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
title_short AIDS, Caregiving and Kinship: The Queer “Family” in Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances
title_sort aids caregiving and kinship the queer family in bill sherwood s parting glances
topic melodrama
family
death
New York City
parrhesia
Parting Glances
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11761
work_keys_str_mv AT nikolastepic aidscaregivingandkinshipthequeerfamilyinbillsherwoodspartingglances