Resisting Annihilation: The AIDS Anthology Poem and Collective Melancholia

Brandon Menke

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Chapter 12 Resisting Annihilation

The AIDS Anthology Poem and Collective Melancholia

In: The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature

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Brandon Menke

Brandon Menke
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 252–277

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004723603_014

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Abstract

When faced with the onslaught of loss generated by the AIDS crisis, the normative elegy strains to do the job it has formerly done—to commemorate the deceased’s virtuous living and to facilitate the psychic process of mourning. Given the abject position of the dead, I argue that the AIDS elegist articulates a claim, while working through an immersive melancholia, about the grievability of the dead by resisting those officially sanctioned views of queer lifestyles and sexual behaviors as condemnable. I explore how the AIDS anthology facilitates a communitarian ethos and contributes to a transformative politics of representation. I discuss an anthologized poem each from Thom Gunn, Mark Doty, Reginald Shepherd, and Melvin Dixon to illustrate how queer poets revised the elegy and devised new ways of memorializing life through verse.

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The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature

Series: DQR Studies in Literature Online, Volume: 66/1, DQR Studies in the Lyric, Volume: 66/1, and DQR Studies in Literature, Volume: 66/1

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004723603

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 14 Jan 2025

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Part 1 Resistance

Part 2 Revision

Part 3 Re-mapping

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 12 Resisting Annihilation

The AIDS Anthology Poem and Collective Melancholia

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The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature

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