"Language is my second language": Dangerous writing and hiv-affected communities in Tom Spanbauer's In the City of Shy Hunters
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemAutor
Barozzi, StefDirector
Rodríguez Salas, GerardoDepartamento
Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Filologías Inglesa y AlemanaMateria
Community theory Dangerous writing Finitude HIV/AIDS Immunity Queer Theory Singularities
Fecha
2021-06Fecha lectura
2021-06Resumen
This paper aims to analyse the U.S. writer and teacher Tom Spanbauer’s novel In the City of Shy Hunters (2001) by means of theoretical perspectives that embrace both queer and communitarian epistemologies. The novel, set mainly in New York City in the mid1980s, is narrated in first person by the protagonist and shows how HIV/AIDS, and the elevated social stigma surrounding it, affects different classes and ethnicities, as well as gender, sexual and corporal diversities. It experiments with a particular writing style and teaching method that Spanbauer calls dangerous writing; that is, how to expose our inner life and secrets, which are often related to social taboos. The main objective of this paper, which underlines its originality, is to demonstrate the connection between dangerous writing, queer studies and community theory by adopting a multidisciplinary approach to literary critical analysis. The novel is about an inwards as well as outwards journey taken by a young protagonist, who is both a queer singularity and a shy hunter, looking for the sore truth that lies within his own and other human hearts. Firstly, I will explore Spanbauer’s dangerous writing style, then I will investigate the HIV/AIDS crisis through a queer perspective (Judith Butler, Teresa de Lauretis, Michel Foucault and Annamarie Jagose). Furthermore, different community configurations (Jean-Luc Nancy’s in/operative community, Maurice Blanchot’s community of lovers and Roberto Esposito’s concept of immunitas) will be discussed. The main result demonstrates that the singularities represented in the novel, who are mostly queer and affected by HIV/AIDS, can create inoperative communities and communities of lovers, open to otherness and secret sharing, as well as being spontaneous, antisocial and momentary, with a
recognition and acceptance of mortality.