The study of literature is seen as one of the best ways to bring students through the curriculum to recognize and grapple with the moral dimension of human life. Such a focus for a basic course is especially important when students take only one literature course. (Author/MLW)

College teachers can help students rethink two stereotypes emerging in American literature classes--the self-destructive writer who must necessarily be addicted, and the beer-guzzling, wild-partying college student--through an examination of the impact of alcoholism on the author's life. A course on Tennessee Williams illustrates the approach.…