Document Type
Journal Article
Abstract
William Yang’s performance Sadness challenges essentialised categories of identificationby juxtaposing tales of his Chinese-Australian family with the journey of friends from hiscommunity dying of AIDS-related complications and infection. In doing so, Yang foregroundsthe threat of mortality that attempts to stabilise identity politics for the‘nation’. In the age of global media Yang resists multi-modal approaches to hismedium to reclaim the theatrical space of narration. As a consequence, Yang’sSadness affords an opportunity to rethink the imperatives intrinsic to the classificationof social subjects in terms of racial, sexual and reproductive practices, and the relationshipof the citizen-body to modes of cultural representation.
RIS ID
33265
Publication Details
Hamilton, M. M. "‘Citizens of fate’: Blood, disease and the question of mortality in Sadness by William Yang." Sexualities: studies in culture and society 15 .3-4 (2012): 297-313.