Literature of AIDS:  LIT 3394a
Fall 2005

Professor: Melody Bowdon, Ph.D. Email: mbowdon@mail.ucf.edu Office Phone: 407-823-6234
Office Location: Colbourn Hall, 307G Office Hours: Thursdays, 1-4 p.m.

Course Description
This course will involve close and contextualized readings of a wide range of texts that have emerged from and shaped the AIDS pandemic since the mid-1980s. Texts will include fiction, poetry, nonfiction and memoir works that explore ways in which writers have used language to deal with the personal, social, and political effects of this crisis. Most of the major texts will come from contemporary American literature, but we will spend significant time in the course studying AIDS around the globe. Students will work collaboratively on a service-learning project. The course will include a WebCT component and a class blog. To access the WebCT component, go to http://reach.ucf.edu/~lit3394a/.  The URL for our blog is http://www.litofaids.blogspot.com/.  To log in, create an account at http://www.blogger.com. 

Course Objectives

• Develop an awareness of the trajectories of literary responses to HIV/AIDS around the world since 1981.
• Develop a rudimentary understanding of scientific concepts associated with HIV/AIDS.
• Refine skills of textual and cultural analysis.
• Develop complex definitions of the terms "AIDS" and "literature" and be able to deploy those definitions effectively in assigned papers and exams.
• Develop a dynamic intellectual "map" for charting categories of HIV/AIDS literature and their realized and potential impacts.
• Develop a sense of the global and individual social, cultural, and political power of language through successful completion of a collaborative service-learning activity.

Course Requirements

• Attend class regularly and participate actively in group discussions.  Students who miss more than four class periods for any reason may be penalized.
• Critically read and respond in conversation and in writing to nine books that address HIV/AIDS.
• Present a 10 to 15 minute in-class report on your choice of one of several suggested books or topics.
• Complete mid-term and final exams successfully.
• Write a 7-10 page paper that integrates research and readings in an argument about the significance of literature in the shaping and reflecting of responses to the global AIDS epidemic.
• Participate in a group service-learning activity related to the course topic.  This will involve choosing and performing a service as well as contributing to the class blog.

Course Materials

• What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Pearl Cleage
• Heaven's Coast, Mark Doty
• Hospital Time, Amy Hoffman
• In the Company of My Solitude, Marie Howe and Michael Klein, eds.
• My Brother, Jamaica Kincaid
• Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, Paul Monette
• AIDS and Its Metaphors, Susan Sontag
• We Are All the Same, Jim Wooten
• Strong Shadows, Abigail Zuger

Course Policies

• I will happily review rough drafts of any assignment during my office hours.
• I do not accept late papers except in cases of documented medical emergencies.
• I expect students to do their own work and I do not tolerate plagiarism. I may use university resources to research suspected instances of this practice and will enforce all university policies related to it.
• I expect students to refrain from making racist, ageist, sexist, classist, homophobic or other types of comments that show disrespect for humankind in class discussions or in electronic or print written documents.
   

Grade Distribution

Grade Scale

A = 93-100 A- = 90-92 B+ = 87-89 B = 83-86 B- = 80-82 C+ = 77-79 C = 73-76 C- = 70-72 D+ = 67-69 D = 62- 66 F =below 62

Grading Standards

·        An A text is exceptional. It contains a careful and effective balance of summary and analysis. It contains the required elements of the assignment, is written in an engaging style, is arranged in a logical manner, is memorable, and it is visually appealing. It is free of mechanical errors.

·        A B text is strong. It contains all required elements of the assignment. It is generally above average in terms of the criteria mentioned above, but falls short of excellence in one or more category. It is free of mechanical errors.

·        A C text is competent. It contains all required elements of the assignment. It is generally average in terms of the major criteria listed above. It has few mechanical errors.

·        Low C or D work is weak. It does not include the required elements of the assignment and it falls below average in terms of one or more of the major criteria.

·         F work fails in terms of one or more of these criteria.
 

 Daily Schedule