Counterpublicity and Corporeality in HIV/AIDS Zines

Abstract

This essay demonstrates how two U.S. zines produced from 1990 to 1999 by and for gay men with HIV/AIDS*/Diseased Pariah News (DPN) and Infected Faggot Perspectives (IFP)*/constitute counterpublics. I demonstrate how DPN and IFP constitute counterpublics through thematization of two important forms of difference*/blood status (HIVpositive or HIV-negative), and political ideology. I then specify and elaborate primary modes of corporeal expressivity in the zines*/the erotic/sexual and the grotesque*/to demonstrate the work that each mode does for the counterpublics.