“This is My Body”: Historical Trauma, Activist Performance, and Embodied Rage

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For more about the background of this play, see Conrad.

2. We turn to Muñoz's work with an eye toward the rich context of cultural theorists working in literature, film, and visual art who have used testimony and witnessing as rich conceptual frameworks to analyze HIV|AIDS cultural work. See Tougaw; Brophy; Hallas; Blocker; and Junge.

3. Young notes a similar strategy of life writing as a contestation of these tropes in the video work of Marlon Riggs, in particular Tongues Untied, which premiered just months before Smith's theatrical production was captured on tape.