'In Australia, AIDS life documents encompass a variety of forms and narrative styles,including quilt panels, interviews, articles by people living with HIV and AIDS, diaries, photographs and documentary film - as well as art, music and fiction. this study will only document and analyse a fraction of these materials, focusing on public writings. the texts examined here are mainly 'traditional' book-length life narratives, supplemented by one documentary film and two diaries. Other materials, including collections of interviews and shorter biographical works on people with HIV/AIDS, have not been excluded except when they directly contribute to the discourse as part of an emerging pattern during the last decade.' (From author's introduction p.105)