Treatment of HIV/AIDS in fiction : a focus on Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye's Chira, Joseph Situma's the mysterious killer and Carolyn Adalla's confessions of an AIDS victim

Abstract

This study examines how Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye in Chira. Joseph Situma's The Mysterious Killer and Carolyn Adalla's Confessions of an AIDS Victim, have exploited literature to depict the causes of HIV/AIDS, its effects on the society, their vision for the society in the face of the pandemic, in a fresh and more effective way. We also look at the characterization and the literary techniques they have exploited to this end. This study investigates the hypotheses that, through the use of figures of speech,

letters, dialogues and reminiscences, the writers bring out their visions vis a vis

HIV/AIDS; the portrayal of characters living with HIV/AIDS is an effective way of

revealing the theme of the pandemic; and that though these writers are informed by the theme of HI V I AIDS, their views on the disease have similarities and differences.

The study adopts the sociological and stylistic critical approaches.

The study is subdivided into three chapters. Chapter one introduces the study and

reviews relevant Literature to the study. Chapter two explores how the various issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS are depicted by the three writers, as well as the vision they offer to the society in the face of the scourge, Chapter three is an examination of how metaphors, similes, symbols, letter mode of writing, dialogue, and reminiscences enhance exploration of the theme of AIDS effectively.

The study reveals that, though the three writers deal with familiar issues of

HIV/AIDS, through characterization and the various stylistic devices and literary

techniques, they go beyond the statement of "do's and don'ts" that characterize most

HIV/AIDS discourses in other fields, to provide a clear vision for the society. The study shows that the writers also recognise the role of both men and women in the fight against the scourge.