“We will be citizens”: Affect and Citizenship in Representations of the AIDS Crisis

This article analyzes affective representations of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s in the U.S. in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (2003), and in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (2014). The core approach is affect theory applied to cultural studies. I argue that throughout a period of government inaction towards an unknown and deadly virus, art was a means of engaging with the activist and social movements of the time that further propelled the fight against AIDS and aimed at changing public perceptions. The affects depicted in these works engage questions of belonging and citizenship, leading to an overview of how portrayals of the epidemic help make sense of the notions of affective and intimate citizenship.