From debates over connections made between national identity and the "exploration" of geographical space to meditations on the seeming disappearance of "solid ground" in a postmodern world of capital and information flows, the concept of place has been, and continues to be, important to the study of American (U.S.) literature and culture. This course will begin from growing critical interest in place-based literary studies to ask how we (as readers and scholars) conceive of "place" and what that means for reading literature, other cultural documents, and our own everyday experiences. The following authors likely will appear in our schedule: Anzia Yezierska, Edith Wharton, Henry David Thoreau, Marilynne Robinson, Rick Bass, and Don DeLillo. Study of photography, art works, and film will help us to respond to the readings. Interdisciplinary theory from literature and environment studies, anthropology, and cultural geography will provide frameworks for various ways of thinking about space and place. Expect to engage in lively class discussions; to read a variety of texts and documents published across a large time span (from the 1850s to the present) in various contexts and disciplines; and to complete critical response papers, group facilitations, reading quizzes, and a final project.