The Sway of Stigma: The Politics and Poetics of AIDS Representation in Le président a-t-il le SIDA? and Spirit of Haiti
Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 2011
This essay explores the poetics and the politics of AIDS representation in the Haitian context through an examination of Arnold Antonin's film Le president a-t-il le SIDA? (Does the President Have AIDS?; 2006) and Myriam J. A. Chancy's novel Spirit of Haiti (2003). Drawing on the insights of queer theory, the author argue that the hyperconsciousness of stigma in the Haitian context imposes limits on the imaginings of AIDS in cultural production; thus even as artists enter into their representation with overtly political intentions, they are unwittingly enmeshed in prevailing discourses and narratives of stigma in areas such as gender, sexuality, and religious practice.
