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Syllabi: AIDS, Medicine, and Cultural Studies
INSTITUTION: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
COURSE DIRECTOR:
Paula A. Treichler, Ph.D
Medical Humanities and Social Sciences Program,
Institute of Communications Research, Women's Studies
email ptreich@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
ENROLLMENT: graduate and medicine; elective
SEMESTER: Spring 1994
Thursdays 2-5
(This syllabus, though revised annually, remains substantially the same from year to year. For further information, contact Paula A. Treichler, Ph.D.)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
It has been said that the AIDS epidemic "moves along the fault lines of our society and becomes a metaphor for understanding that society." We are now well into the second decade of this epidemic and can identify many ways in which AIDS has become metaphorically representative of a wide range of interests and understandings. We can also trace its multiple effects on culture and society, in the U.S. and elsewhere, including effects on conceptions of disease, public health, and the provision of health care. For example, some authorities attribute the urgency surrounding efforts to reform the U.S. health care system (which, as other authorities have said, is not healthy, caring, or a system). to the burdens placed upon it by the AIDS epidemic. More central, perhaps, are the ways that the AIDS epidemic has called attention to everyday practices in science and medicine, current and past paradigms of healing and disease, and "contests for meaning" over the nature of the body and its multiple identities (e.g., with regard to sex, sexuality, race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, health, and so on). In all these arenas, deeply entrenched social codes and cultural narratives (or what Fee and Fox have called "the burdens of history") continue to shape our understandings and representations of AIDS and, indeed, our efforts at intervention. This reciprocity between biology and culture, between an epidemic and its social context, is the subject of this seminar.
Drawing on work in cultural studies and other fields, we will investigate these topics in relation to the AIDS epidemic and to other areas of medicine, health, and disease. We will also use concrete exemplars from medicine to explore the nature and explanatory power of a number of central concepts in cultural studies (ideology, hegemony, identity, culture, the media, etc.). These examples will be furnished through work on AIDS and other illness conditions by artists and videomakers, anthropologists, media scholars and practitioners, cultural critics (including feminist and postcolonial writers), social scientists, physicians, activists, health policy makers, people with AIDS and HIV and their advocates and caretakers, and public figures like Magic Johnson. From these perspectives we will explore some of the contests for meaning, representational strategies, and material changes emerging from the epidemic. For example, we will examine HIV theory and its challengers, alternative accounts and chronologies of the epidemic, the interaction between AIDS treatment activism and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's procedures for testing and releasing experimental drugs; educational campaigns and strategies in selected countries and populations; lesbian-feminist responses to AIDS; understandings of AIDS and HIV in the so-called high risk groups; media representations and independent video productions; the quilt, Day Without Art, and other ambitious cultural projects; and other AIDS texts. Two issues of the feminist film journal Camera Obscura will provide a starting point for exploring other contested arenas in medicine including breast and prostate cancer, tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, X-ray and other imaging technologies, pregnancy and childbirth, endometriosis, dissection, cosmetic surgery, transsexualism, the inscription of race in medical practice, and venereal disease.
Using these and other works, we will work to develop a cultural studies model of the AIDS epidemic. Seminar participants will complete individual projects or case studies that address a particular dimension of the epidemic in relation to medicine, the health care system, another disease, or some other topic of significance for cultural studies. Students will have assistance from the instructor as well as considerable latitude in developing their projects, which may be historical, comparative, literary, etc. Students will also be expected to prepare short seminar presentations on the readings or related topics, develop short position papers and media analyses, and otherwise contribute toward a lively and collaborative intellectual experience.
REQUIRED READINGS
Books-required
1. ACT UP/NY Women and AIDS Book Group, Women, AIDS, and Activism (Boston: South End Press, 1992). Paper, $7.00.
2. Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). Paper, $8.95.
3. Camera Obscura Numbers 28 and 29 (Indiana U Press, 1992 and 1993). Approx. $7 per issue.
4. Douglas Crimp, ed., AIDS: Cultural Analysis, Cultural Activism (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988)
5. Elizabeth Fee and Daniel M. Fox, eds. AIDS: The Making of a Chronic Disease (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
6. Earvin "Magic" Johnson, What You Can Do To Avoid AIDS (New York: Time Books, 1992). Paper, $3.99.
7. Jonathan Mann et al, AIDS in the World: A Global Report (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992). Paper.
8. Robert Root-Bernstein, Rethinking AIDS (New York: The Free Press, 1993) HC, $27.95.
9. Sarah Schulman, People in Trouble (New York: Penguin/Plume, 1991). Paper, $8.95.
10. Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On (New York: Penguin, 1988). Paper, $12.95.
Books-recommended
1. Robert Atkins and Robert Sokolowski, guest curators, From Media to Metaphor: Art About AIDS (New York: Independent Curators, 1992).
2. Gilbert Herdt and Shirley Lindenbaum, eds. The Time of AIDS: Social Analysis, Theory, and Method (Newbury Park: Sage, 1992).
PHOTOCOPIED PACKET
Books will be supplemented by a photocopied packet of readings available at Notes N Quotes after January 17. A copy of the packet will be on reserve in the Library of the Health Sciences, Medical Sciences Building.
MEDIA PACKET
A packet of materials for studying media coverage will be provided to you in class.
VIDEOS
A number of videotapes will be on reserve in the Library of the Health Sciences and the Undergraduate Library.
WARNING
In this class you will encounter readings, images, videos, and discussion materials that are sexually and politically explicit.
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. January 13 INTRODUCTION
a. Distribution and discussion of syllabus, goals, requirements, readings, course format and mechanics; self-introductions by class members and instructor
b. Understanding AIDS: a look at the Surgeon General's pamphlet mailed in 1988 to all American households
c. Screening and discussion of selected videos
NOVA 1984, clips; An Early Frost 1985, opening scenes; ABC Evening News, Reagan's colon surgery; Gay Men's Health Crisis clips; The ADS Epidemic and clips from Video Against AIDS; And the Band Played On 1993, opening scenes
2. January 20 AIDS & MEDICINE: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES, CULTURAL ANALYSIS
a. course business, introductions, sign up for presentations
b. lecture and discussion
multiple perspectives and approaches to studying the AIDS epidemic; cultural and subcultural/community perspectives, agendas, interests; alliances, oppositions, and contradictions; meanings and definitions; mainstream, alternative, and oppositional perspectives, cultural construction
c. discourse analysis: in-class analysis of Understanding AIDS
d. Readings
Mann et al,
Crimp
Brandt
Fee and Fox
Treichler, "AIDS, HIV, and the Cultural Construction of Reality" (in Herdt and Lindenbaum)
PACKET
Centers for Disease Control, "Pneumocystis pneumonia--Los Angeles" MMWR June 5, 1981 and "Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Pneumonia among homosexual men--New York City and California," MMWR July 4, 1981
Altman, "Who's Stricken and How: AIDS Pattern Is Shifting" New York Times 2/5/89
3. January 27 CHRONICLES AND CHRONOLOGIES
a. lecture with slides
evolution of the epidemic; intersection of discourses; divergent accounts; meanings and definitions; data and its interpretation; domains of investigation
b. discussion of lecture; glossary; discursive domains
c. Readings
Shilts, pp. 1-215
Treichler, "AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification" in Crimp
Brandt
PACKET
selected chronologies of the epidemic
Robert C. Gallo, "The AIDS Virus," Scientific American 256:1 (January 1987) 46-56.
Robert C. Gallo and Luc Montagnier, "AIDS in 1988," Scientific American 259:4 (October 1988) 41-48.
4. February 3 THE BURDENS OF HISTORY
a. introductory remarks:
the use of history in the AIDS epidemic; medical history; history and investigative journalism; interested narratives; contests for historical meaning
b. student presentations on readings/videos
c. class discussion of readings and of Shilts assignment
assignment for class discussion: select a review of Shilts' book from a journal in your own field or from some other source (e.g., Journal of the American Medical Association, New York Times, Mother Jones, National Review, Ebony, Village Voice, Advocate, etc.), or you may select a review of the movie version (HBO Cable Channel, Dec. 1993). Identify the concerns and perspectives of the review in relation to its source and to your own views; make copies of the review to distribute to class members and instructor.
READINGS
Shilts, pp. 215-439
Fee and Fox
Brandt
PACKET
Fracastorius, from Syphilis, or the French Disease excerpts
Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Years excerpts
Albert Camus, The Plague excerpts
5. February 10 AIDS, MEDICINE, AND THE MEDIA
a. media overview with slides and video excerpts; discussion of media, culture, forms of critique
b. student presentations on readings and videos
c. class analysis of selected news stories (see handout)
READINGS
Shilts, pp. 440-end
Brandt, "The Cleanest Army in the World"
Watney, "The Spectacle of AIDS," in Crimp
Dearing, in Fee and Fox
PACKET
Kinsella, "Covering the Plague Years"
Mehboob Dada, "Race and the AIDS Agenda"
6. February 17 CONTESTS FOR MEANING I: THE EVOLUTION OF THE EPIDEMIC/THE "DISCOVERY" OF HIV
a. introductory remarks: material and conceptual resources for creating "history"; genesis and development of scientific facts; discovery/reflection and invention/construction; theory as material practice
b. student presentations on readings and videos
READINGS
Root-Bernstein
Fee and Fox
Brandt on germ theory
Feldman, in Camera Obscura #28
ON RESERVE: John Crewdson, "The Great AIDS Quest"
PACKET
Susan E. Cayleff, "Politics of a Disease"
readings on Gallo/Montagnier, HIV/anti-HIV disputes, and Nature/London Times dispute
Gallo autobiography excerpts
7. February 24 CONTESTS FOR MEANING II: ORIGIN STORIES
a. introductory remarks
contests for meaning over Haitian origin/African origin of HIV; "conspiracy theories." Problems of reading "third world AIDS." "nodal points" within and across discourses; the nature of hegemonic accounts; material consequences of discursive constructions; conspiracy theories and science.
b. student presentations on readings and videos
c. videos: AIDS in Africa (TV 4, ABC Evening News, Day One)
READINGS
Mann et al
Treichler, in Fee and Fox
Packard and Epstein, in Fee and Fox
Marc Dawson?
Schoepf in Herdt and Lindenbaum
Farmer in Herdt and Lindenbaum?
PACKET
Richard Selzer, "A Mask on the Face of Death"
John Seale, "Kuru, AIDS, and Aberrant Social Behavior"
Herbert Daniel, "A Guerrilla Grapples with AIDS"
Robert J. Biggar, "The AIDS Problem in Africa"
Albert J. Fortin, "The Politics of AIDS in Kenya"
Felix I. D. Konotey-Ahulu, "AIDS in Africa: Misinformation and Disinformation"
Spin?
Media reports
8. March 3 CONTESTS FOR MEANING III: CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF SEX AND SEXUALITY
a. introductory remarks
terminology; epidemiological categories versus lived social realities; problems of defintion; class, race, and gender; regimes of truth; AIDS in the context of women's health; role of feminists and lesbians
b. student presentation of the Cosmo controversy, January 1988
c. videos: Doctors, Liars, and Women, Suzy's Story, Hollibaugh and Lebow, The Second Epidemic profile of Margie Rivera, Diana's Hair Ego
READINGS
Treichler, "Beyond Cosmo" in Camera Obscura #28
Katie King, in Camera Obscura #28
Suki Ports, "Needed for Women and Children," in Crimp
Open Letter to Planning Committee, in Crimp
Richard Parker in Herdt and Lindenbaum
Women, AIDS, and Activism
PACKET
Gary Alan Fine, "Welcome to the World of AIDS"
Gayle Greene, review of Gena Corea
Robert E. Gould, "Reassuring News for Women about AIDS"
March 10 SPRING BREAK A Q NO CLASS
9. March 17 AIDS, MEDICINE, AND CULTURAL STUDIES
a. lecture
AIDS and Cultural Studies: How to Have Theory
b. student presentations on readings; discussion
READINGS
Treichler and Cartwright, introductions, Camera Obscura #28 and #29
other in CO issues: Hartouny, Stabile, Cartwright
Grover, "AIDS: Keywords," in Crimp
PACKET
Stuart Hall, Cultural Studies
Treichler, "How to Have Theory in an Epidemic"
Grover-Hall-Treichler exchanges in Cultural Studies
Isaac Julien and Pratibha Parmar
10. March 24 ANALYSIS OF AIDS/HIV DISCOURSE I: APPROACHES TO VISUAL REPRESENTATION
a. introductory remarks with slides and videos
art and activism, public service announcements
b. class discussion: analysis of visual representation
assignment for class discussion: analysis of visual example
READINGS
Gever, in Crimp
Gilman, in Crimp
"The Second Epidemic" in Crimp?
Fee and Fox, Anne Meredith
Atkins and Sokowlowski
PACKET
Roberta McGrath
John Greyson, "AIDS Videos and Representation"
11. March 31 ANALYSIS OF AIDS/HIV DISCOURSE II: APPROACHES TO TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION
a. introductory remarks
assignment: analysis of textual example for class discussion
READINGS
Schulman, People in Trouble
Bersani, "Is the Rectum a Grave?" in Crimp
Sontag, "The Way We Live Now"
clippings?
Treichler, "Seduced and Terrorized"
12. April 7 CULTURAL THEORY, POLICY, AND INTERVENTION
a. lecture
summary Rock Hudson/Magic Johnson
critique of intervention, AIDS organizations and institutions
behavioral change. AIDS as symbolic battleground.
READINGS
Magic Johnson
Flood and Henderson
Alissa Solomon
PACKET
FDA materials
13. April 14 UNSCHEDULED
14. April 21 PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
15. April 28 PROJECT PRESENTATIONS (last class)
final day of instruction: Wednesday, May 4
papers due for graduating seniors: Friday, May 6
papers due for everyone else: Wednesday, May 11*