Young Adult Novels, Aids Pedagogy, and Queer History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7177601 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel Duckels (0000-0002-0294-5417, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 2025 |
| Issue | 104 |
| Pages | 141-151 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Minnesota Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-5667 • E-ISSN: 2157-4189 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00265667-11859110 |
| OpenAlex | W4411716788 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
This article explores the role of young adult novels (or “problem novels”) in constructing ideas about the impact of AIDS on gay men in the United States from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The article utilizes Jennifer Miller’s concept of critical optimism to argue that it is insufficient to read these novels as merely propping up a dominant ideology of homonormativity. It explores the relationship between melodrama and pedagogy in cultural responses to AIDS as intertwined rather than oppositional. The article uses a new historicist lens to argue that the first young adult novel about AIDS deserves greater integration into scholarly conversations about queer history, because of its use of a mass-market, normative form to conceal internal debates about AIDS within the gay community
Art · Pedagogy · Queer · Sociology · Digital Games and Media · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Highly cited | No |
|---|