Comparative Literature

The Comparative Literature program offers students an opportunity to study literature from a broader, more comprehensive point of view than one restricted to the works of a single nation or a single language area.

The B.A. program is designed to make the student aware of the international culture in which national literatures flourish. The student will study the ways in which the literatures of different nations enrich, influence, and help define each other, in order to be able to recognize those traits that are universally shared and those that are distinctive and unique to each one.

The program in Comparative Literature also gives the student the opportunity to enhance his or her competence in a foreign language through the study of literature.

Each student majoring in Comparative Literature will design his or her own program in consultation with one of the faculty advisors, whose approval of the program is required. The choice of electives will reflect the student’s background, special interests, and objectives.

Students should review course offerings in the departments or programs of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, English, Asian Studies, Black Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, and Women’s Studies.

The possibilities for interdisciplinary study are numerous. Students may, for example, choose to orient their study of the national literatures to such topics as literature and science, literature and society, or literature and other arts, and may include in their programs related courses in such fields as anthropology, art, history, music and theatre.