Students of comparative literature study literary questions that cross linguistic, political, cultural and historical boundaries.
The scholarly expertise of our faculty ranges from the ancient Greek poems of Sapho to contemporary Japanese performance and Bob Dylan’s songs, from the interaction of diplomacy and literature in the Renaissance to the discursive construction of unnameable sexualities, from seventeenth-century Chinese theater to modern and postmodern literature in languages such as Korean, Yiddish, Hindi, French, Russian, Spanish, and English. Beneath the apparent chaos, what brings us together is our commitment to a broad approach to literary studies and the pleasure we take in working with students to develop their own way into this intellectual adventure.
As a student of Comparative Literature, you will:
- study literature from at least two different cultural traditions in their original languages.
- consider literature not only from differing cultural traditions, but from varied historical periods as well.
- work to understand the concept of comparison when applied to a specific group of authors or texts from different literatures.
- think theoretically about the idea of literature itself, considering how it is studied, how it is similar or different from other domains, and/or how to challenge Western theory from non-Western approaches to literature.
Here's what our students say
"I was thinking of majoring in English because I love literature, but I figured, "Hey, why study literature in only English when I can study it in multiple languages?" I like learning about languages, and I enjoy the diversity of material in Comp Lit classes."
"I thoroughly enjoy literature, but always regretted the fact that I had never read authors that were people of color, or in a language other than English. After reading Cien años de soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I realized that I love reading in Spanish, my second native language. When I discovered that Comparative Literature was a major, I realized that it would allow me to study a beautiful, diverse array of texts that would inform me more of the world at large, and not only in a eurocentric manner. That's why I majored in Comp Lit! "
Why Study Comparative Literature?
Comparative Literature Major Map
Undergraduate Field Guide
