Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject American Studies -
Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Göttingen (Philosophische
Fakultät), course: The American Rhetorical Tradition, language: English,
abstract: While this extensive film encompasses a variety of themes and
topics, the focus of this paper will be its proposition of progress. It
will be argued that Angels in America confirms progress to be inevitable
and essential by drawing on, and redefining, American concepts and myths
of westward movement and migration, equality and pluralism. Thus,
traditional elements of the construct "American Dream" will be analyzed.
The first part will consist of a short overview of different approaches
to progress employed in the film: historical, religious and political.
Subsequently, the second and third part will focus on a set of selected
scenes and investigate how progress, and the lack thereof, is
communicated in the depiction of different characters as they are caught
in a constant struggle between motion and staying put, between moving on
and giving up, between living and death. From this, the redefinition of
aforementioned American concepts will be derived. In 2003, playwright
Tony Kushner adopted his two-part play premiered in 1991 and 1992,
Angels in America, to the screen. The HBO miniseries was directed by
Mike Nichols and studded with celebrated actors such as Al Pacino, Meryl
Streep and Emma Thompson. Set in New York City in the mid 1980s, a time
of Reagan's politics and the silencing of AIDS, the series revolves
around a set of characters differing greatly in ethnicity, religion,
worldview and sexual orientation. They include Louis and Prior, a
homosexual couple having to cope with Prior's AIDS diagnosis, and Harper
and Joe, Mormons, who are faced with Joe's oppressed homosexuality
destroying their marriage. Other characters are Hannah, Joe's mother
from Salt Lake City, Roy Cohn, a lawyer also diagnosed with AIDS, and
Belize, Prior's black homosexual
