About the Program
The Major Program
Comparative Literature is a dynamic major whose own self-definition is constantly shifting. Once mostly limited to the study of western European literature and its Greco-Roman classical past, today Comparative Literature has become a global interdisciplinary study of literature in original languages and other media (including cinema, television, fine arts, and opera, for example). Thus, we can define Comparative Literature as the study of literature and culture across national boundaries and throughout time.
The Program
Both the major programs and the minor programs in Comparative Literature allow students to combine courses in one or more national literature departments with courses in Comparative Literature. The introductory course sequence provides an overview of ancient to contemporary literature and film, offers intensive practice in analytical thought, and satisfies the university composition requirement. All readings in undergraduate Comparative Literature courses are in English, but majors take upper division courses in at least one foreign literature in the original language.
Career Alternatives
A Comparative Literature major offers an excellent enhancement to pre-professional training, preparing students for graduate study in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and other science fields as well as law and business, besides of course journalism and publishing, teaching, or graduate study in literature.