Queer temporality in Tony Kushner's angels in America

Abstract

Tony Kushner's Angels in America, written in two parts during the early 1990s, vividly depicts the experiences of queer individuals confronting the AIDS crisis. Examined through the framework of anocriticism and queer temporality, the play challenges traditional life trajectories focused on reproduction, aging, and progress. Drawing on the work of theorists such as Roberta Maierhofer, Jack Halberstam, and Elizabeth Freeman, this analysis investigates how the play's fragmented narrative and interplay of supernatural and historical elements blur the boundaries between past, present, and future. Characters like Prior Walter and the Angel illustrate the tensions of queer aging and temporality. Prior's illness and his encounters with the Angel destabilize linear notions of life and death, creating a suspended sense of time where aging becomes unpredictable. The Angel's portrayal of time as cyclical and fractured disrupts assumptions that aging must follow a structured, linear path. By engaging with these temporal disruptions, Angels in America critiques socially constructed ideals of aging tied to health, productivity, and heteronormative family models. The play instead imagines futures shaped by resilience, interpersonal connection, and the transformative possibilities of queer existence beyond fixed life scripts. This critical reading positions Kushner's work as a vital contribution to critical conversations on aging, queerness, and temporality.