Outline

Angels in America: Tony Kushner’s Reflections on the Crisis and

Outlet of Modernity

Thesis statement: Kushner uses the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s in America as a
representative of a major tragedy to unveil the reality that modernity is on the verge of
collapse, opening up a discussion of the sources of modernity’s crisis through the
tragedy of the individual, the world, and nature. However, Kushner’s efforts are far
more than just theoretical discussions; he also responds to the real situation and
strives to find new paths of redemption. In this attempt, Kushner gives his answer to
the question of the way out of modernity: modernity is still the basis for survival of
modern society.

Introduction:
1. About Tony Kushner and Angels in America
2. Literature review
3. Thesis statement and the outline of the organization of the thesis

Ⅰ. The resources of modernity crisis: innate contradictions of modernity

A. Conflicts of different dimensions
a. Conflict between the normative power of rational operation mechanism in social
fields and individual subjectivity and consciousness (social responsibility and
freedom--Joe and Louis).
b. Conflict between intervention of public power and the relative independence of
public sphere(political attitudes and approaches to the issue of gay rights and the
AIDS pandemic).
B. The overinflation of some dimensions of modernity
a. From the spiritual dimension: the overinflation of individual subjectivity and
consciousness(Joe and Roy).
b. From the institutional dimension: the overinflation of instrumental
rationality(man’s overconquest of nature).
C. The integration force of “identity”
a. The combination of ideological social and historical narratives with highly
consistent public power and standardized science and technology may lead to the self-
destruction of rationality(Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine).

Ⅱ. Public response to the salvation of modernity tragedy: religion redemption and

Kushner’s deconstruction
A. Religion redemption
a. The concrete manifestation of public panic about the crisis of modernity: religious
doomsday complex.
b. Reference of religion redemption: Millennialism.
c. The content of religious redemption: stop progress and abandon modernity.
B. Kushner’s deconstruction
a. The role selection of prophetic identity: break the religious moral curse of
homosexuality(Prior is chosen to be the prophet).
b. The parody of the scene of angelic ordination: God’s pre-written history has been
rewritten by human pop culture.
c. The irresponsibility and dereliction of the God: question God’s authority as the
writer of human history.
d. The disorganization, depression and stagnation of the heaven: anti-science and anti-
progress are not real redemption.

Ⅲ. Kushner’s exploration of redemption in the crisis of modernity proves the inherent

rationality of modernity
A. Kushner’s exploration
a. Believe in the progress of human nature and the upward trend of history(Prior
refuses angelic ordination).
b. Break the isolation of the individual from society and nature(transformation of fire
and water imagery).
c. Accept uncertainty and change for future.
B. Modernity is still the basis for survival in modern society
a. Modernity is still the dominant cultural paradigm and spirit: individuals move
from a natural and spontaneous experiential structure to a a state of free and
conscious existence.
b. The innate contradictions of modernity can be reconciled to a certain extent:
postmodern critical theory makes a profound exploration of correcting the negative
consequences of modernity.
c. The “unintended consequences” of modernity are twofold: variables create
possibilities and futures.
d. The reflexivity and transcendence is inherent in modernity.