Queer Identity And The Difficulty Of Survival:A Study Of Tony Kushner’s Angels In America

Tony Kushner(1956-)is one of the best-known contemporary playwrights in America.The play Angels in America:A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,Kushner’s masterpiece,enjoys great popularity and is hailed as the "milestone of western theatre".This play gives full expression to plenty of crises in American society:political corruption,racial discrimination,and even oppression endured by the marginalized group like homosexuals,people living with AIDS and so on.In this play,Tony Kushner also expresses his good hopes and wishes for those homosexuals.Taking Queer theory as the entry point,especially Judith Butler’s gender performativity and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet,this thesis aims to explore the queer identity,difficulty of their survival and the efforts they have made in fighting for living space under the control of heterosexual hegemony.Firstly,with the help of the theory of gender performativity,this thesis will focus on the analysis of gender identity of the characters in the play.Prior and Belize are drag queens and they show their femininity in their language,behaviors,costumes and psychology.On the contrary,Joe and Roy’s quest for power reveals their masculinity.Then,using Epistemology of the Closet,this thesis will probe into the dilemma that Roy and Joe are confronted with,under the influence of heterosexual culture.Finally,during Reagan administration,the whole society is indifferent to and discriminates against AIDS and homosexuality.There is the misrecognition that AIDS is regarded as the disease from homosexuals,which has resulted in the difficulty of survival of homosexuals.In the survival predicament,the mutual-help between homosexuals and the support from heterosexuals make it possible that homosexuals can win the living space.Taking the true experiences of Tony Kushner into consideration,this thesis also investigates the wishes to the homosexuals.By analyzing the living conditions of homosexuals in the play,this thesis aims to disclose the dilemma of the choice of gender identity,social origin of this phenomenon and the way queers get rid of the predicament eventually.Through the study,the author hopes to arouse the whole society’s concern and pity for homosexuals,meanwhile,to boost the analysis of Queer theory and this play.