As the title says, this course is about reading literature; as the subtitle says, it is also a course about the banning of books. The literature we will be reading to learn about how to read literature will be books that have been challenged, banned, and even sometimes burned in the U.S. As we read, we will talk about the literature both as examples of literary form, analyzing the way they employ the techniques of their genres and create particular reading experiences, and also as literary works that have experienced challenges made by people who have objected to their form and content. Toward this latter end, we will learn about the history of book burning, banning, and censoring and about the social and political issues raised—Who gets to decide what we read and teach and lend? What is the value of reading literature? The literature that we will read may include novels such as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye,  and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried; graphic nonfiction such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home; and memoirs such as Dick Gregory's N*****.