Queer Politics and Literature in the tim

On or about 1981, sex changed. The New York Times reported a “rare cancer observed in 41 homosexuals,” a condition that the CDC would name “AIDS” in 1982. HIV/AIDS transformed the shape of queer politics. It encouraged coalitional organizing that necessarily responded to the interlocking nature of race, gender, sexuality, and class. In this course, we will examine literature, film, visual art, performance, theory, and political actions produced during the crisis and in its wake. We will analyze the aesthetic and political strategies artists and activists used to respond to the epidemic. Our texts will be diverse, ranging from diaries and notebooks that chronicle life with AIDS to poems and memoirs that memorialize those who were lost. We will read queer theory and critical essays to enrich our primary readings. Writers and artists under consideration include Gregg Araki, Samuel R. Delany, Tory Dent, Gran Fury, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Essex Hemphill, Gary Indiana, Derek Jarman, Jamaica Kincaid, Larry Kramer, Marlon Riggs, Sarah Schulman, and David Wojnarowicz. Students will have the opportunity to visit an archive to examine artists’ journals and, as a final project, embark upon a research-based curatorial project.