Unstable Frontiers: Technomedicine And The Cultural Politics Of Curing Aids

Synopsis

The cure for AIDS: the search goes on, keeping pace with our belief that AIDS is incurable. How such a seeming paradox works, and how it may well work against the proper treatment of the disease, is the subject of Unstable Frontiers , a critical look at the cultural politics behind the quest for a cure for AIDS. This massive commercial and scientific project, John Erni suggests, actually hinges on our contradictory definitions of the disease as curable and incurable at the same time. Drawing on diverse sources, from popular media to medical literature to cultural theory, he shows how the dual discourse of curability/incurability frames the way we think about and act on issues of medical treatment for AIDS. His work makes a major advance in our understanding of, and, perhaps, humane response to, a national crisis. In his critique of the logic and fantasies underlying the double definition of AIDS, Erni explores a broad range of issues: the scientific paradigm used to develop AZT; the politics of alternative treatment practices, of clinical drug trials, and of AIDS activism; and the notions of time and temporality operating in aids treatment science. He also critiques the problematic popular themes, such as AIDS is invariably fatal and knowledge = cure . Unique in its approach to a social and political issue still in the making, the book reveals how AIDS has challenged technomedicine's historical position of authority, and in doing so, recasts this challenge in a powerful and ultimately hopeful way.