Major Requirements

Major Requirements

This document links to the most up-to-date major requirements for Comparative Literature.

General Guidelines

  1. All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements must be taken for a grade (exceptions to this requirement are noted as applicable).  Language courses that prepare students for the upper division literature courses (such as French 1-4 & 102, Spanish 1-4 & 25, Chinese 1-100B) may be taken for P/NP.

  2. One upper division course may be used to fulfill requirements for a student’s major and minor, however up to two classes can count twards a double major. Common double majors for Comparative Literature, where students can find the most overlap, tend to be language majors including English, and/or other majors in which coursework can count towards English (i.e. Philosophy, Linguistics, Rhetoric).

  3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in upper division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.

For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.

1. Upper Division Requirements: Courses in Comparative Literature


Course

Title

Units

COM LIT 100 (or 100A, B, C, or D)

Introduction to Comparative Literature

4

COM LIT 190

Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature

4

Select one period course of the following:

COM LIT 151

The Ancient Mediterranean World

4

COM LIT 152

The Middle Ages

4

COM LIT 153

The Renaissance

4

COM LIT 154

Eighteenth- and 19th-Century Literature

4

COM LIT 155

The Modern Period

4

COM LIT 160AC

Topics in Literature and Poetry 

4

COM LIT 170

Special Topics in Comparative Literature

4

2. Upper Division Coursework (3) in a Primary Literature

  • MINIMUM Readings must be in the original. (In departments such as French and Spanish, all coursework will be completed in the original language; in several East Asian Languages, sometimes the course might be taught in English but reading, or reading and writing, will be done in the original. ***Please check with the Comparative Literature Undergraduate Advisor (complituga@berkeley.edu) AND the Undergraduate Advisor in the language to confirm completing upper division literary arts coursework in the language is possible in your number of semesters on campus.

  • Depending on the language and the student's preparation in that language, the student may need up to 2 years or more of lower division language courses as prerequisites.

  • These three courses should cover a range of historical periods equivalent to

    • Early      >1700

    • Middle    =1700-1900

    • Modern   <1900

For example, if English is the student's primary literature, then an example of courses that cover these periods would be a course on Shakespeare (English 117S), Romantic Period (English 121), and the 20th Century Novel (English 125D). 

3. Upper Division Coursework (2) in a Secondary Literature

  • Depending on the language and the student's preparation in that language, the student may need up to 2 years or more of lower division language courses as prerequisites.

  • These three courses should cover two historical periods equivalent to

    • Early      >1700

    • Middle    =1700-1900

    • Modern   <1900

Sample Program Plan

Comparative Literature Plan
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!
Undergraduate Student

Approved major coursework