After viewing the scenes from Rent, I’d like you to draw upon our discussion of Kenneth Burke’s “Terministic Screens” to analyze how the film represents the experiences of people living with AIDS.
First, reflect on the representation of the support group through the terministic screen of someone like Mark (the character with the video camera). What do you see in this scene if you view it through the lens of sickness? Or, as an outsider or as someone who doesn’t have AIDS observing a group of people who do?
Then, imagine yourself viewing this scene as one of the support group members. How does the terminology of survival or even “living with” change what you observe in these scenes? How does either of these screens reflect, select, and/or deflect the reality or AIDS?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sources for first paper
As we start class today, take five minutes and tell the rest of us what book you found in the library over the weekend. What’s the title and who’s the author? Who published this book? Do you think it’s a scholarly source, or is it from a more popular press? Why did you check this book out?
Also, give us a quick update on what you think you’ll write your first paper about. What do you think your primary text will be? If you haven’t found one yet, what texts are you thinking about writing about? Or, what illness or issue are you interested in pursuing for this assignment?
Also, give us a quick update on what you think you’ll write your first paper about. What do you think your primary text will be? If you haven’t found one yet, what texts are you thinking about writing about? Or, what illness or issue are you interested in pursuing for this assignment?
Susan Sontag’s "AIDS and Its Metaphors"
In pairs, I would like you summarize the main claim of AIDS and Its Metaphors in your own words. What do you think its central argument is? Then review one section of this essay and summarize its main point. Which (brief) passage do you think conveys this point? Last, I’d like you to explain how this section of the essay relates to the claim of the entire essay.
Here are the pairs I would like you to work in and the section I’d like you to focus on:
Section 1 (pp. 93-104): Zach Welch & Emily Major; Section 2 (pp. 104-112): Jenn Vernick & Cayla Jewett; Section 3 (112-125): Matt Ritz & Kelsey Jensen; Section 4 (125-131): Jenna Pettinger & Leah Goldsher; Section 5 (pp. 132-148): Kathryn Palma & Kelly Goheen; Section 6 (pp. 148-159): Anya Morin & Stephanie Franquemont; Section 7 (pp. 159-168): Sean McNiff & MaryKate DeGraw.
Here are the pairs I would like you to work in and the section I’d like you to focus on:
Section 1 (pp. 93-104): Zach Welch & Emily Major; Section 2 (pp. 104-112): Jenn Vernick & Cayla Jewett; Section 3 (112-125): Matt Ritz & Kelsey Jensen; Section 4 (125-131): Jenna Pettinger & Leah Goldsher; Section 5 (pp. 132-148): Kathryn Palma & Kelly Goheen; Section 6 (pp. 148-159): Anya Morin & Stephanie Franquemont; Section 7 (pp. 159-168): Sean McNiff & MaryKate DeGraw.
Friday, March 27, 2009
HIV/AIDS, Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Each time I teach WRIT 1733 as a service-learning course, I like to invite you, the students, to reflect on your previous experiences with both volunteering and the issue we’re focusing on in this section—HIV/AIDS and illness. To enhance your experience and the writing community that we’re beginning to form, I think we owe it to each other to understand our perspectives on both these issues.
Let me start by asking you about when you first became aware of what HIV or AIDS was. As I grow older, I’ve realized that those of us who came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a very different experience with this epidemic than people of your generation. For example, I can remember reading newspaper accounts as a teenager about this disease, accounts that were full of fear about catching it from casual contact (a handshake or eating off the same dish) or through kissing. There was a lot of misunderstanding and fear in those years about this disease and a number of marginalized groups (like gay and bisexual men, immigrants, people of color, and homeless people) were stigmatized because mainstream Americans blamed them for the spread of HIV.
I also I grew up terrified that sex was dangerous and that it would probably kill you. In college, my friends and I campaigned endlessly to educate our peers about safer-sex and other ways of preventing the spread of HIV. For me, community service has always been closely tied to the panic many of us felt in the earlier years of the AIDS epidemic, an epidemic that devastated many communities within our country, prompting them into action as a means to survive.
These are just a few of my own personal impressions about this particular disease. I’d be curious to read more of yours. When did you first learn about HIV/AIDS? What did you (or do you) associate with this illness? What questions do you have about it?
On a related note, I’d also be curious to read more about your experience with volunteerism, service-learning or other forms of civic engagement. What kinds of activities have you participated in that prepares you for our work with Project Angel Heart? What do you hope to gain from this part of our course?
Let me start by asking you about when you first became aware of what HIV or AIDS was. As I grow older, I’ve realized that those of us who came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a very different experience with this epidemic than people of your generation. For example, I can remember reading newspaper accounts as a teenager about this disease, accounts that were full of fear about catching it from casual contact (a handshake or eating off the same dish) or through kissing. There was a lot of misunderstanding and fear in those years about this disease and a number of marginalized groups (like gay and bisexual men, immigrants, people of color, and homeless people) were stigmatized because mainstream Americans blamed them for the spread of HIV.
I also I grew up terrified that sex was dangerous and that it would probably kill you. In college, my friends and I campaigned endlessly to educate our peers about safer-sex and other ways of preventing the spread of HIV. For me, community service has always been closely tied to the panic many of us felt in the earlier years of the AIDS epidemic, an epidemic that devastated many communities within our country, prompting them into action as a means to survive.
These are just a few of my own personal impressions about this particular disease. I’d be curious to read more of yours. When did you first learn about HIV/AIDS? What did you (or do you) associate with this illness? What questions do you have about it?
On a related note, I’d also be curious to read more about your experience with volunteerism, service-learning or other forms of civic engagement. What kinds of activities have you participated in that prepares you for our work with Project Angel Heart? What do you hope to gain from this part of our course?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Analyzing Susan Sontag’s “Illness as Metaphor”
To begin class today, I’d like you to pick one of the quotes below to respond to. First, explain what you think the quotation means—Why is it significant? Then, explain how you think it relates to the main claim of this essay—How does it support or elaborate on Sontag’s central argument?
▪ “Above all, [the metaphor of TB] was a way of affirming the value of being more conscious, more complex psychologically. Health becomes banal, even vulgar” (26).
▪ “In the nineteenth century, the notion that the disease fits the patient’s character, as the punishment fits the sinner, was replaced by the notion that it expresses character. It is a product of will” (43).
▪ “Nothing is more punitive than to give a disease a meaning—that meaning being invariably a moralistic one. Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance” (58).
▪ “To describe a phenomenon as a cancer is an incitement to violence. The use of cancer in political discourse encourages fatalism and justifies ‘severe’ measures—as well as strongly reinforcing the widespread notion that the disease is necessarily fatal. While disease metaphors are never innocent, it could be argued that the cancer metaphor is a worst case: implicitly genocidal” (83).
▪ “Above all, [the metaphor of TB] was a way of affirming the value of being more conscious, more complex psychologically. Health becomes banal, even vulgar” (26).
▪ “In the nineteenth century, the notion that the disease fits the patient’s character, as the punishment fits the sinner, was replaced by the notion that it expresses character. It is a product of will” (43).
▪ “Nothing is more punitive than to give a disease a meaning—that meaning being invariably a moralistic one. Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance” (58).
▪ “To describe a phenomenon as a cancer is an incitement to violence. The use of cancer in political discourse encourages fatalism and justifies ‘severe’ measures—as well as strongly reinforcing the widespread notion that the disease is necessarily fatal. While disease metaphors are never innocent, it could be argued that the cancer metaphor is a worst case: implicitly genocidal” (83).
Monday, March 23, 2009
Questions to consider for class on Wednesday
As your read Susan Sontag’s essay “Illness as Metaphor,” consider the following questions as you prepare for class:
• In the introduction to this essay, Susan Sontag writes, “It is toward an elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them, that I dedicate this inquiry.” What kind of knowledge about illness does Sontag’s inquiry reflect and create? What kind of liberation does is offer us? Do you think this liberation can be achieved through text alone?
• How does thinking of illness—either TB or cancer—as a metaphor do harm? (Either for people living with such diseases or for those who are not?) Can you imagine ways in which such metaphors might not be harmful? How could such thinking empower people living with an illness or enhance our understanding of it?
• Which passage from the essay do you think is the most significant? Or the most provocative? Or the most interesting? Why?
Feel free to leave an initial impression here before class. Or, come prepared to discuss when we meet on Wednesday.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Welcome to WRIT 1733! Post interviews of your classmates here as a comment.
For your first blog post, please introduce the person you interviewed to the rest of class. Write a 250-350 profile that captures who he or she is, where he or she is from, and what he or she likes to do. You might tell us more about this person’s experiences as a writer or his or her interest in service-learning.
Whatever issues you focus on, take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. Have fun with this piece—make it interesting! Use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your mini-profile.
For example, if I were to interview myself and post the result, I might write something like:
Place matters to Professor Geoffrey Bateman, which is why his current research is so important to him. "I think the different regions of our country shape us in important ways," he says. “As a teacher and scholar, I'm interested in studying the literature and cultural history of places, especially the American West."
Having grown up near Portland, Oregon, his interest in the West has evolved since childhood. He grew up exploring everything from the majestic Columbia River Gorge to the misty Oregon coast; he hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and hung out in the quirky urban spaces of Portland and Seattle.
These experiences may help explain his current research on the queer frontier. His dissertation explores the cultural representations of sexuality in the American West near the end of the 19th century.
"It's a particularly rich period for sexuality studies,” he observes. "Sexual identity was not nearly as cut and dried as it became in the mid to late 20th century. And when you consider how racialized identities and gender norms factor into this understanding, you have an explosion of fascinating accounts—both literary and historical.”
But his interests don’t lie solely in the past. Professor Bateman believes strongly that historical research must speak to contemporary issues, especially those that are politically charged.
“Literature and history offers us a way to rethink current problems, and for me, I think the most rewarding I can do historically is to show others how texts from the past allow us to re-imagine our lives today.”
Such engagement means that in his first-year writing courses, he tries to find meaningful ways for students to practice their writing. Ideally, he wants them to connect abstract rhetorical concepts and research methodologies with ideas and problems outside our university context.
“Ultimately,” he says, “I want students to feel confident that what they’re learning in my classroom not only prepares them for the rest of their time at DU, but also starts them on a much larger journey of being an engaged citizen for the rest of their lives.”
Whatever issues you focus on, take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. Have fun with this piece—make it interesting! Use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your mini-profile.
For example, if I were to interview myself and post the result, I might write something like:
Place matters to Professor Geoffrey Bateman, which is why his current research is so important to him. "I think the different regions of our country shape us in important ways," he says. “As a teacher and scholar, I'm interested in studying the literature and cultural history of places, especially the American West."
Having grown up near Portland, Oregon, his interest in the West has evolved since childhood. He grew up exploring everything from the majestic Columbia River Gorge to the misty Oregon coast; he hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and hung out in the quirky urban spaces of Portland and Seattle.
These experiences may help explain his current research on the queer frontier. His dissertation explores the cultural representations of sexuality in the American West near the end of the 19th century.
"It's a particularly rich period for sexuality studies,” he observes. "Sexual identity was not nearly as cut and dried as it became in the mid to late 20th century. And when you consider how racialized identities and gender norms factor into this understanding, you have an explosion of fascinating accounts—both literary and historical.”
But his interests don’t lie solely in the past. Professor Bateman believes strongly that historical research must speak to contemporary issues, especially those that are politically charged.
“Literature and history offers us a way to rethink current problems, and for me, I think the most rewarding I can do historically is to show others how texts from the past allow us to re-imagine our lives today.”
Such engagement means that in his first-year writing courses, he tries to find meaningful ways for students to practice their writing. Ideally, he wants them to connect abstract rhetorical concepts and research methodologies with ideas and problems outside our university context.
“Ultimately,” he says, “I want students to feel confident that what they’re learning in my classroom not only prepares them for the rest of their time at DU, but also starts them on a much larger journey of being an engaged citizen for the rest of their lives.”
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