TITLE:  DISEASE AND DISCRIMINATION:  AIDS IN AMERICA
TR  7:15-8:30 BH 149
How have the feelings of confusion, repulsion, denial, fear, and
sympathy toward AIDS changed the face of twentieth-century American
society?  This course will examine the antithesis of the celebrated
American dream of success by exploring images of isolation and contagion
and their effect upon groups and individuals.  In particular, we will
look at AIDS as a case study of disease and discrimination from 1980 to
the present.  To develop a context for our case study, we will begin by
reading some works about illness which develop recurrent patterns in
American artistic representations of sickness; then we will apply these
patterns to help us decipher recent representation of AIDS.  We will
explore the tension within attitudes towards AIDS, such as the
contradictory desires to withdraw and isolate or to reach out and cure,
and the fascination with the body as a site of illness.  We will also
interrogate the differences in social knowledge of AIDS gained through
informal sources such as conversation versus scientific knowledge as
disseminated by institutions.  Texts will include both written and
visual materials, including excerpts from dance performance and film.
We will view four films at showings outside scheduled class sessions--_Kids_, _And the Band Played On_, _Boys on the Side_, and
_Philadelphia_.