Through the study of different literary traditions that transcend regional and temporal boundaries, comparative literature immerses you into cultures from around the world. You can focus on a particular comparative approach to study various literatures of your choice whose original language is not English, including Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and Russian. You will study these literatures under the guidance of faculty members who have been trained in the original languages in which these works have been written. All courses are conducted in English translation.
As a Comparative Literature major, you focus on a comparative approach to various literatures from around the world with faculty members who specialize in different world literatures. You are trained in discourses and methodologies of the field and work closely with faculty members who are active in your areas of interest.
The minor consists of five courses: One unit must be CMLT 200.9, Discourses in Comparative Literature, plus two unit courses from among those numbered 100-299, and two unit courses from among those numbered 300-499. There must be a clear comparative approach to the courses you are taking.
Professor Merkel's research on Russian Romanticism explores the intersection of poetry and fashion. She writes on Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Anna Akhmatova.
Professor Sokolsky frequently travels to Japan with students. Her latest book is on 20th-century Japanese writer Tamura Toshiko. She is currently working on a biography about her grandfather’s time in China as a journalist working for Sun Yat-sen and a manuscript about the Taiwanese journal, "Taiwan fujinkai," written for women in Japanese-ruled Taiwan during Japan’s colonial period.
"The Comparative Literature major is more than just a love of content, a love of stories; we come also with a curiosity of the how: how different cultures approach text and ideas of textuality, translation, and theory and transmission. It's more than what literature is about—it’s about what literature is."
Professor Raizen situates her work among a growing body of scholarship devoted to comparative Mediterranean studies. Her research on affect and translational communities has taken her to Egypt, Morocco, and Israel-Palestine.
In past Travel-Learning Courses, students have pursued studies in Japan and Italy.