This study seeks to explore and interrogate the viral reality of the 1990s, in which the
virus, heavily indebted to representations of AIDS for its metaphorical power, emerged
as a prominent agent in science and popular culture. What becomes apparent in both
fictional and non-fictional texts of this era, however, is that the designation of virus
transcends specific and material viral phenomena, making the virus itself a touchstone for
modern preoccupations with self and other. As constituted by the human bodys
interaction with pathogenic agents, the binary of self and other may be deconstructed by
an interrogation of the virus itself, a permeable and mutable body that lends itself to any
number of interpretive possibilities. A uniquely liminal agent, the virus refuses
categorization as either life or non-life. However, it is not the liminality of the pathogen
that allows for this deconstruction, which serves to frustrate such boundaries in the first
place. Rather, the notion that viruses are (always) already a part of who we are as human
beings, and that self is not necessarily a self-enclosed autonomous entity, suggests that
the binary cannot hold. A virus is unique; an insider/outsider that crosses artificial
boundaries, it destabilizes the boundaries themselves, and thus the traditional framework
of self and other. Examining viral accounts in popular science writings, film, television,
advertisements, philosophy, science fiction, and naturalistic fiction, this study examines
the ways in which science and popular culture have characterized both the virus and its
psychological and material effects, and suggests that the pathogen-as-signifier may be
read in ways that point to the viruss utopian potential as a theoretical category.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-0607102-185008 |
| Date | 10 June 2002 |
| Creators | Thomas, Anne-Marie |
| Contributors | Robin Roberts, Patrick McGee, Sharon Weltman, James Taylor, Carl Freedman |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0607102-185008/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University Libraries in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. |
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