Rhyming youth with death : what we might learn from HIV/AIDS fiction in South Africa
Master Thesis
2012
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
That the interpretation of disease, its fictionalisation, might prompt negative responses is an issue that has been addressed by various people. Of which one of the better known examples is Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor & Aids and its Metaphors. In South Africa the negative effects of reading HIV/AIDS as metaphoric are borne out by the shame and stigma which make acknowledging and treating the disease difficult. While recognising the relevance of being against the interpretation of disease this thesis is an attempt to argue for what we can learn from considering the metaphors that constitute what might be called the official fiction, that is, literary fiction, about HIV/AIDS in South Africa. I will focus generally on how metaphor might offer a singular way of communicating the experience of the diseased body in the context of the abstracting expertise of modem medicine. And I will also examine two instances in which metaphor and fiction might give specific insight into the experience of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
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Adams, B. 2012. Rhyming youth with death : what we might learn from HIV/AIDS fiction in South Africa. University of Cape Town.