In this paper the emerge and characteristics of the New Queer Cinema is elaborated, particularly in the context of the AIDS crisis, as well as on the features of the classical road movie. The focus is mainly on Timothy Corrigan and Ruby Rich's features which they pointed out for each genre, but include many other sources of my findings. After setting the theoretical background for the analysis, a closer look will be made at AIDS representation and road movie features in the movie. It will be furthermore pointed out in which way The Living End queers them, or rather what makes the movie a new queer AIDS road film. The collective pain and resistance of the queer community during the AIDS crisis is fundamental to this queering of the genre(s).
In the 1980s and early 1990s, a wave of fear, desperation and illness rushed over the US American society. The AIDS epidemic gained a foothold among the broad public in the 80s, causing the majority of society to fume and quash the queer community which they held responsible for the spread of the virus. Being under great pressure by this anti-queer attitude on the one side and the dying of masses of infected individuals and the government's ignorance of the AIDS crisis on the other, the community faced a harsh period of struggle, eventually resulting in the uproar of protest and resilience, also in the cinematic sphere.
The New Queer Cinema movement is one outcome of this spirit of resilience whose filmmakers picked parts of movie and narrative conventions and made them queer, inventing new cinematic practices, all in order to fight back and empower the queer community in the times of struggle and crisis. One of the prime example films of that movement is Gregg Araki's The Living End (1992) which marks the fusion and intersection of the much needed overthrew of AIDS representation in media, – offering a queer point of view of life with the epidemic – and the classical road movie genre that the topic of AIDS queers in a typical New Queer Cinema manner. In fact, I claim that AIDS representation in The Living End transforms it into a new sub-genre, the new queer AIDS road film which follows traditions and abstractions of the classical road movie and mainstream AIDS representation of and prior to the 90s.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. New Queer Cinema – Movies made of Queer Collective Resilience
2.1. The 1990s, AIDS Crisis, and the Emerge of New Queer Cinema
2.2. Genre Specific Features
3. The US American Road Movie Genre
3.1 Features and Narratives
3.2 Postmodernism & New Routes
4. The Living End (1992) – A New Queer AIDS Road Movie
4.1 Representation of AIDS and HIV positive characters
4.2 Queering the Road Movie Genre
5. Conclusion
Objectives and Topics
This paper examines how Gregg Araki's 1992 film "The Living End" transforms and revolutionizes both the New Queer Cinema movement and the traditional US American road movie genre, particularly in the context of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
- The intersection of New Queer Cinema and the AIDS crisis in the 1990s.
- Core characteristics of the US American road movie genre.
- Deconstruction of cinematic conventions and the "unapologetic" nature of queer representation.
- Analysis of "The Living End" as a subversion of traditional AIDS narratives and road movie tropes.
- The role of collective queer resilience and political defiance in independent filmmaking.
Excerpt from the Book
4.1 Representation of AIDS and HIV positive characters
In comparison to many other films of the NQC, AIDS is an overt subject in Araki's The Living End. The two protagonists Luke and Jon have been diagnosed as HIV positive which is a premise of the movie. However, their positive status is never underpinned (Pearl 28). In the following section, I argue that and explain in what way The Living End queers the AIDS movie.
According to Monica B. Pearl, what makes the movie NQC is the preoccupation with death, time, and history and the control over one's death (28). Hence, the defiance of the inevitable death is a topic that becomes prominent on many levels throughout the whole movie. Luke's and Jon's diagnosis, their medical doom, is displayed as an empowering source of liberation and a justification for immoral actions and irresponsible behavior. The marginalized group of HIV positive individuals becomes the powerful one. Luke, who portrays the characteristic embodiment of queer frustration and anger during the AIDS crises (mainly as a response to the ignorance of the government), confirms this statement by calling him and Jon “victims of the sexual revolution” and calling AIDS genocide meant to wipe out all queers, also says that the diagnosis sets him free and that now he can do whatever he wants.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the societal context of the 1980s and 90s, defining the scope of the study regarding New Queer Cinema, the AIDS crisis, and the subversion of the road movie genre in Gregg Araki’s work.
2. New Queer Cinema – Movies made of Queer Collective Resilience: The author explores the emergence of New Queer Cinema as an aesthetic and political response to the AIDS epidemic, characterized by defiance and non-normative storytelling.
3. The US American Road Movie Genre: This section provides a theoretical background on the road movie, outlining its conventional narrative structures, the significance of the vehicle and the frontier, and its transition into postmodern iterations.
4. The Living End (1992) – A New Queer AIDS Road Movie: This chapter analyzes how "The Living End" specifically addresses HIV/AIDS and rejects traditional road movie conventions to create a unique sub-genre.
5. Conclusion: The concluding chapter summarizes how the film successfully integrates art protest and genre-defying techniques to empower the queer community and influence subsequent cinematic narratives.
Keywords
New Queer Cinema, Gregg Araki, The Living End, AIDS crisis, Road Movie, Homosexuality, Postmodernism, Queer Resilience, Narrative Disruption, HIV positive, Representation, Countercinema, American Culture, Political Protest, Identity Politics
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research paper?
The paper focuses on analyzing Gregg Araki's 1992 film "The Living End" to demonstrate how it revolutionizes the road movie genre and AIDS representation through the lens of the New Queer Cinema movement.
What are the primary thematic fields addressed in the work?
The primary themes include the cultural and cinematic impact of the 1990s AIDS crisis, the subversion of heteronormative film tropes, queer identity, and the use of postmodern narrative styles like pastiche and irony.
What is the central research question or goal?
The goal is to analyze the ways in which "The Living End" functions as a "new queer AIDS road film" by rejecting traditional conventions and providing a unique, defiant perspective on living with the virus.
Which scientific methods are employed in this analysis?
The author uses film analysis and theoretical framework building, drawing upon scholars such as Timothy Corrigan, Ruby Rich, Monica B. Pearl, and Katie Mills to critique generic features of road movies and New Queer Cinema.
What specific topics are covered in the main section?
The main section covers the evolution of New Queer Cinema, the conventions of the classical road movie, the representation of HIV-positive characters, and how the film "The Living End" queers these specific genre elements.
How can the key terms characterizing this work be defined?
Key terms include "Homo-Pomo" (homosexual postmodernism), collective resilience, anti-assimilationism, and ideological narrative, which collectively define the rebellious and innovative approach of 1990s queer independent film.
How does "The Living End" differ from traditional Hollywood AIDS movies?
Unlike traditional films that portray AIDS through a lens of pity, fragile suffering, or inevitable moral decay, "The Living End" presents its protagonists as strong, erotic, and unapologetically defiant in the face of their diagnosis.
What role does the "road" play in the film according to the author?
The author argues that the road in "The Living End" serves as a space for aimless cruising and existential questioning, effectively stripping the traditional road movie of its focus on the car as a bonding tool or the destination as a goal of liberation.
Why does the author consider the film’s ending significant?
The ending is considered significant because it refuses the traditional closure of death for the AIDS-afflicted protagonist, opting instead for a "living end" that rejects narrative finality and offers a glimmer of continued survival.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Lisa Kubatzki (Autor:in), 2019, New Queer Routes in "The Living End" by Gregg Araki. AIDS Representation and the Road Movie reinvented and revolutionized, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/903512
