ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Schulman's 1995 novel Rat Bohemia. It begins with a discussion of familial homophobia, the ways in which heteronormative blood families fail to give help and support to their gay kin. Then, it analyzes the ways in which the novel represents the impact of this traumatizing failure on gay individuals, especially in the time of the AIDS epidemic. Next, it turns to the practice of bearing witness to the epidemic, especially as experienced by Rita, the novel's protagonist, who, as a Jewish lesbian, perceives certain resemblance between her own experience of the epidemic and her “inherited memory” of the Holocaust. Lastly, the chapter focuses on the novel's central symbol, rats, which are interpreted as representing the excluded and the unwelcome. Rita's complex relationship with the rats makes visible the instability of her loyalties and the difficulty of following non-normative values in the late capitalist state.
