Darius Bost
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226589794
- eISBN:
- 9780226589961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226589961.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
This chapter examines the diaries of Melvin Dixon, which he kept diaries from 1965 until 1991. Together, they comprise one of the most extensive accounts of black gay social life in the ...
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This chapter examines the diaries of Melvin Dixon, which he kept diaries from 1965 until 1991. Together, they comprise one of the most extensive accounts of black gay social life in the post-Stonewall era. It challenges dominant theorizations of the AIDS diary by positioning Dixon’s struggles against AIDS within a history of anti-gay and anti-black violence that was indexed in his diaries since the 1970s. Centering emotions of uncertainty and self-doubt, the chapter shows how the diary operated as a mode of self-making for Dixon in the context of the persisting negativities of post-Stonewall life.Less
This chapter examines the diaries of Melvin Dixon, which he kept diaries from 1965 until 1991. Together, they comprise one of the most extensive accounts of black gay social life in the post-Stonewall era. It challenges dominant theorizations of the AIDS diary by positioning Dixon’s struggles against AIDS within a history of anti-gay and anti-black violence that was indexed in his diaries since the 1970s. Centering emotions of uncertainty and self-doubt, the chapter shows how the diary operated as a mode of self-making for Dixon in the context of the persisting negativities of post-Stonewall life.
