Analysis of Susan Sontag's "The Way We Live Now". A Lethal Disease Affecting People's Lives

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: The focus of this seminar paper shall be on HIV-negative people and their living circumstances in the era of AIDS. The research question, which will be investigated, is: How does AIDS affect HIV-negative characters in Susan Sontag’s “The Way We Live Now”? The thesis statement goes as follows: The HIV-negative characters’ reactions to being faced with AIDS are expressed in a vast range of behavioral patterns, such as cognitive escapism, methods of stress management, avoidance of HIV-tests, development of HIV-negative identities, collective fear, states of denial and anticipatory grief.First of all, the plot of “The Way We Live Now” will be introduced shortly. In order to get a better grasp of what the situation in the U.S. looked like at the time the story is set, an overview of the historical context will be given. The sexual liberation in the 1960s/70s and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s will be discussed. The main part of this seminar paper will focus on the characters of the short story. They were divided into two camps – the healthy and the sick.