Comparative Literature

Thinking across languages and cultures, students become better readers, writers, and thinkers in a global and international context. Courses in human expressive culture, literary history, practical criticism, and critical theory stress the relationship between literature and other disciplines in the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences. The program offers both the doctoral and the masters degree and sponsors courses on both the graduate and the undergraduate level. All comparative literature courses are conducted in English. To introduce undergraduates to the field of study, the comparative literature faculty has designed a cluster of courses in critical thinking and world literature and culture. These courses concentrate on writing and thinking critically, with a focus on expressive texts drawn from around the world, in the context of an interdisciplinary and international program. The fifteen-hour cluster complements many majors in liberal arts; with the approval of the student's major department, it may be used to fulfill the minor requirement.