DEPARTMENTAL OBJECTIVES

The undergraduate major is designed to foster serious work in literature at the advanced level, while giving students a strong background in critical and cultural analysis and a keen ability to pose questions and write with lucidity and force. The major provides an ideal intellectual site for students to draw connections across cultures, periods, genres, and disciplines in a rigorous yet individually designed way. A comparative literature major could lead to the advanced study of literature at the graduate level but could just as readily be a strong basis for advanced degrees and/or careers in publishing, journalism, international relations, international law, cultural studies, medicine, philosophy, education, public policy, film and entertainment industries, the Internet, and computer software.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Many comparative literature majors wish to study literature in its international contexts, having mastered one or more foreign literatures. However, such mastery is not required in all courses or of all majors, and courses are open to a wide range of nonmajors with eclectic and interdisciplinary interests.

MAJOR

To declare a major, a student must successfully complete one course offered by the Department of Comparative Literature. The major has two tracks, each consisting of ten 4-point courses organized as follows:

Track 1: Literature. This track includes the following courses:

1. Four courses originating in the Department of Comparative Literature, including Introduction to Comparative Literature and the Junior Theory Seminar. These four courses must be taught by a faculty member of the Department of Comparative Literature; they cannot be cross-listed courses originating in another department.

2. Four courses in a national literature department at the 100 level or above conducted in the language of that literature.

3. Two courses in a related cultural field or discipline. Fields could include history, art history, religion, philosophy, classics, politics, cinema studies, and so on and could also be another foreign language or literary area. If the national literature department selected for specialization is English, these two courses must be in a foreign language. The choice of these courses will be made in consultation with the adviser to form a coherent intellectual field and a defined objective in the major.

Track 2: Literary and Cultural Studies. Track 2 includes the following requirements:

1. Four courses originating in the Department of Comparative Literature, including Introduction to Comparative Literature and the Junior Theory Seminar. These four courses must be taught by a faculty member of the Department of Comparative Literature; they cannot be cross-listed courses originating in another department.

2. Four courses in a related cultural field or discipline. Fields could include history, art history, religion, philosophy, classics, politics, cinema studies, and so on. The choice of these courses will be made in consultation with the adviser to form a coherent intellectual field and a defined objective in the major.

3. Two courses in a foreign literature department in the language of that literature, normally at the 100 level or above.

MINOR

Four courses originating in the Department of Comparative Literature (i.e., not cross-listed courses originating in other departments), including Introduction to Comparative Literature and a demonstrated reading knowledge of one of the foreign literatures studied in these courses.

ADVISEMENT

The director of undergraduate studies serves as adviser to all comparative literature majors and minors.

HONORS GRADUATION

To graduate with honors in the major, a student must maintain at least a 3.65 average in the 10 courses required for the major, earn at least a 3.65 GPA in CAS, and must write a senior honors thesis in his or her final year. A student may write the honors thesis either by a) taking the Senior Seminar course, V29.0400, or by b) working independently after initial advisement and approval by the director of undergraduate studies. This approval must be sought at the end of the junior year. The honors thesis is then written under the supervision of a faculty member of the Department of Comparative Literature whose area of academic expertise coincides with the focus of the honors thesis. The senior honors thesis is in addition to the four courses originating in the Department of Comparative Literature and the other six courses of the major.