In this course, students engage in intensive study of a particular topic in American literature organized around a major author or work (e.g. Toni Morrison, Moby Dick), an idea (e.g. realism, cultural memory, feminism), a genre (e.g. crime fiction, the slave narrative), a historical period (e.g. the Civil War, the Beat Generation), a region (e.g. Southern literature, New York City), or a literary movement (e.g. Transcendentalism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Mountain School).