The Major
Study literary art in the broadest sense—analyzing literature that crosses national, historical and linguistic boundaries. You’ll explore theory and connect your learning to a wide variety of fields—all while investigating the underlying elements that make meaning in text. Whether it’s prose, poetry, theater, film, visual art or new media, you’ll gain an expansive perspective of literature and the world.
Why Study Comparative Literature?
Cultural empathy builds understanding. You’ll gain the ability to see connections that others might miss as you develop your skills reading, analyzing and comparing literature from different cultures and time periods. The critical thinking and writing skills you’ll gain will serve you across a wide range of other disciplines, including art, anthropology, history and psychology, to name a few.
Declaring the Major
Comparative Literature offers a great deal of flexibility in assembling courses for a major and no two major plans are entirely alike. Consult with the department chair or your advisor to assist with mapping out your program.
Senior Portfolio
The Senior Portfolio is an assembly of your work that explores your intellectual development through the course of your comparative literature study. You’ll select three pieces of work from previous courses taken for the major and tie them together through an eight-to-ten-page unifying essay or creative project. There are a range of possibilities for the portfolio, from more traditional analytic essays to creative artistic expression through the visual arts, fiction, or poetry.
Majors present their Senior Portfolios during a symposium in the spring of their final semester.
Featured Courses
In the first book of Vergil’s Aeneid, the god Jupiter prophesies the foundation and the greatness of Rome: “I place no limits on their fortunes and no time; I grant them empire without end.” Yet elsewhere in this epic account of Rome’s origins, this promise of unlimited power for the descendants of Romulus seems to be seriously abridged.
Narrative–storytelling–is a fundamental human activity. Narratives provide us with maps of how the world does or should or might work, and we make sense of our own experiences through the narratives we construct ourselves.
This course examines ways in which literary works reflect on their status as texts. We’ll look at the formal pleasures and puzzles generated by techniques including frame narratives, recursion, and self-reference, in novels, films, and stories by William Kentridge, Jorge Luis Borges, Kelly Link, and Michael Ende.
Degree with Honors and Thesis
If you maintain a 3.5 GPA in the major and have a strong interest in a specific topic, you can pursue a degree with Honors. You’ll work with an advisor to produce a 50 to 75 page thesis and give a public presentation. This year-long project replaces the Senior Portfolio requirement.
For more details regarding timing, process, and evaluation, log in here.
Study Abroad
Majors are strongly encouraged to study abroad. Up to four courses on literature taken abroad can be counted towards the major, provided they satisfy the program’s requirements.
Required Courses
To major in Comparative Literature, you must:
- Complete at least nine courses in literature, broadly conceived, or relevant theoretical approaches
- Enroll in COMP 111: Nature of Narrative, in your first or second year, or COMP 225: Introduction to Comparative Literature
- Five or more of your remaining courses should include, as at least half of their content, material originally written in a language other than English (non-English texts may be read in the original language or in translation) OR be heavily focused on comparison across different media
- Two of your courses for the major must be designated as Writing Skills courses and two must be at the 300-level or above
- Produce a senior portfolio or thesis
Courses not carrying the COMP prefix may be eligible for major credit.