Two topics are offered in 2005/2006. Students may take either or both for credit. Topic for Fall 2005: Faulkner. Principal novels and short fiction, including The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, The Hamlet. Considerations of biographical, social, cultural contexts. Relations to regionalism, Southern Renaissance, modernism. Influence and status as world writer. Topic for Spring 2006: Wharton/Dreiser. Study of Dreiser’s and Wharton’s major fiction. Special attention to genre (American literary realism and naturalism), cultural issues in historical context (urbanism, sexuality, marriage, capitalism), influence of other discourses (anthropology, Darwinism), shifts in each author’s critical reputation.