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Ove 1. Review: Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (1985).
2. Introduction to Larry Kramer.
3. Reading The Normal Heart (1985).
4. Writing activity: Who was right?
Review: 3/23 Research Presentations ▼ Last week: Winterson.
• 3/23 Presentations.
• Guiding questions.
▼ Z. Saelua on “‘Voices under Water’: Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges
Are Not the Only Fruit” (B. Bijon, 2008). “This reading of Jeanette ▼ Introduction to The
Normal Heart (1985).
Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit moves away from traditional
• Who is Kramer?
‘lesbian’ studies and opts rather for a ‘queer’ approach, i.e. one which highlights the
• What’s in that image?
marks of instability in the text and in the construction of the subject.”
▼ Reading The Normal
▼ C. Gallimore on “Gender and Non-normativity in Jeanette Heart (1985).
Winterson's Oranges are Not the Only Fruit” (A. Matos, 2014) + • Timeline of cases.
Love, Simon (dir. G. Berlanti, 2018). “I’m just like you, except I have one • Point/counterpoint:
Who was right?
huge-ass secret. Nobody knows I’m gay. [...] I’m done living in a world where I don’t
get to be who I am. I deserve a great love story, and I want someone to share it with.
Disclaimer: this is about to get romantic af.”

▼ A. Slowin on “Authorities delayed investigating gay ‘demons’

case” (Associated Press, 2017). “For two years, Matthew Fenner said he
pleaded with authorities to investigate his allegations that a group of fellow
congregants at the Word of Faith Fellowship church had punched, slapped and
choked him to expel his ‘homosexual demons.’”
Big-Picture Questions...
▼ What is the genre of Oranges or Not the Only Fruit? Do our interpretations of this
novel change when we read it through the lens of (e.g.) autobiography/memoir;
mythology; “coming-of-age”/bildungsroman; metafiction; and so on? How does
this story compare with others we’ve read so far this semester?

▼ How do various characters in this story perceive the relationship between

religion/spirituality—especially the Pentecostal Church—and same-gender
attraction? How does Jeanette reconcile her religious identity with her sexuality?
What about Jeanette’s mother, Miss Jewsbury, Melanie, Katy...?

▼ What is the role of symbols (objects, events, text, etc.) in this novel? Examples
from student questions: Why does Jeanette lose her hearing? What does it mean
when her mother finally says, “After all, oranges are not the only fruit”?
Larry Kramer in a Nutshell ▼ Last week: Winterson.
• 3/23 Presentations.
• Guiding questions.

▼ Introduction to The
Normal Heart (1985).
• Who is Kramer?
• What’s in that image?

▼ Reading The Normal

Heart (1985).
• Timeline of cases.
• Point/counterpoint:
Who was right?

▼ Born: June 25, 1935, Bridgeport, CT. ▼ Oscar/Emmy-nominated screenwriter;

Still living and active in pro-LGBTQ+ Pulitzer Prize finalist/two-time Obie-
art/politics (often controversially). winning playwright; novelist; activist.
“I spy…”
1989 artwork by artist Keith Haring
(1958-1990; died of AIDS complications at
age 31) promoting the AIDS Coalition to
Unleash Power (ACT UP): a political
organization partly lead by Larry Kramer
after he resigned from the board of the
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).

Imagery from the

Silence = Death Project;
this became an iconic
ACT UP poster (1987):
“Why is Reagan silent
about AIDS? What is
really going on at the
Center for Disease
Control, the Food and
An ACT UP poster (1989) criticizing then-NYC Drug Administration,
Commissioner of Health for ineffective leadership. and the Vatican?...”
Number of cases reported by the CDC over time... ▼ Last week: Winterson.
• 3/23 Presentations.
• Guiding questions.

→ The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) declares ▼ Introduction to The

an epidemic in June 1981. Normal Heart (1985).
• Who is Kramer?
The events of The Normal Heart begin sometime • What’s in that image?
after the publication of the first New York Times
article about the epidemic in July 1981; ▼ Reading The Normal
the play ends in May 1984. Heart (1985).
• Timeline of cases.
• Point/counterpoint:
Who was right?
 iv i t y
Act ▼ In your course journal (3 minute free-write),
write a defense of the following position:

“Ned was right.”

 t 2 !
v i t y Par
Act i ▼ In your course journal (3 minute free-write),
write a defense of the following position:

“Ned was wrong.”