Courses ofInstruction
Comparative Literature
Streering Committee
Betty Bayer, Gender, Sexuality and Intersectional Justice
May Farnsworth, Spanish and Hispanic Studies
Jiangtao Gu, Media and Society
Leah Himmelhoch, Classics
Alla Ivanchikova, English and Creative Writing
James McCorkle, Africana Studies
Nicola Minott-Ahl, English and Creative Writing and Comparative Literature, Chair
Lisa Patti, Media and Society
Courtney Wells, French and Francophone Studies
Kristen Welsh, Russian Area Studies
Affiliated Faculty
Biman Basu, English and Creative Writing
Rob Carson, English and Creative Writing
Anna Creadick, English and Creative Writing/American Studies
Michael Dobkowski, Religious Studies
Laurence Erussard, English and Creative Writing/European Studies
James-Henry Holland, Asian Studies
Leah Himmelhoch, Classical Studies
Eric Klaus, German
Colby Ristow, History/ Latin American Studies
Fernando Rodriguez-Mansilla, Spanish and Hispanic Studies
Carolina Travalia, Spanish and Hispanic Studies
Lisa Yoshikawa, History
Jinghao Zhou, Asian Studies
Comparative Literature is a literary program for students who are interested in genres, topics, and ideas in different media, cultures, and contexts. It’s for students who want to think beyond disciplinary boundaries, even as they come to recognize that all academic disciplines approach and address similar questions in their own way. In fact, the faculty who comprise the program and contribute to its curriculum are all experts in other disciplines, as well as this one. A major in Comparative Literature allows students to pursue their interests and ideas across disciplinary lines and think about how other cultures, languages, and fields of study approach novels, social justice, global capitalism, epic poetry, difference, gender, media old and new, as well as the role of literature in a changing world, to name just a few possibilities.
Comparative Literature can sometimes resemble English or area studies in other languages and cultures, but even traditional literary fields recognize that literature lives in more places than the pages of books. It’s online, in films, in visual art—especially when it accompanies poetry or written narrative. It also lives in oral tradition the world over and across millennia. This is a program whose very nature encourages students to forge their own path of study based on their interests and goals for their learning and future life. Advisors in students’ fields of interest help them construct a stimulating and academically rigorous program of study.
The program also engages our students with at least one culture and language other than English, so they can experience the literatures that inspire them in their native languages. Its approach to comparative study rests on three principles: foreign language training, individual curricular planning, and comparative methodology. All students in the program must demonstrate foreign language competence, normally defined as passing two courses in that language. In special cases, the Comparative Literature committee may arrange for the fulfillment of this requirement by examination. The program in Comparative Literature is housed within the Department of English and Creative Writing.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to train the creative, culturally aware, and well-read change makers of the immediate future. As our world asks us to make decisions about the survival of the planet, the best ways to address injustice, how to approach entrenched oppression, and make new paths in what can resemble intractable moral, cultural, and geopolitical chaos, we seek to train people to bring a variety of intellectual approaches and communication skills to situations and circumstances they may never have met before. Trans-disciplinary literary study will empower our students to experience life from inside many perspectives and imagine the world they wish to create.
Offerings:
The Comparative Literature Program offers a disciplinary major and minor and an interdisciplinary major and minor. All majors and minors in this program are required to take ENG 200 Critical Methods to hone the critical reading and research skills they arrive with, and provide the other essential tools needed to pursue literary study. Majors are also required to take a course in literary theory, but are certainly not limited to one, and must complete their course of study with a capstone course or experience in one of their main fields of interest. That capstone allows students to bring all the knowledge and insight gained over their previous years of study to an advanced course.
Comparative Literature Major (B.A.) – Disciplinary
12 courses
Learning Objectives:
- Skills in close reading, and critical and analytical thinking.
- The ability to engage confidently and effectively in oral and written communication.
- Intellectual independence that comes with wide, in-depth reading and thinking.
- The ability to make complex, cogent, and well researched arguments.
- Foundational skills in one or more languages other than English.
- The ability and confidence to excel, grow, and lead in a variety of professions and fields of endeavor.
Requirements:
ENG 200, a course designated as a comparative literature seminar, and 10 courses in literature or an allied field that form a cohesive program and include one course in critical theory. The courses selected must provide a coherent and in-depth exploration of the field. The number of nonliterary courses must be approved by the advisor and coordinator. Students majoring in comparative literature must also demonstrate proficiency in an ancient or modern language, typically by taking two language courses at the 200-level or above. All courses for the major must be completed with a grade of C- or better.
Comparative Literature Minor – Disciplinary
7 courses
Requirements:
ENG 200, a course designated as a comparative literature seminar, and five courses in literature or an allied field that form a coherent and in-depth exploration of the field. Students minoring in comparative literature must also demonstrate proficiency in an ancient or modern language, typically by taking two language courses at the 200-level or above (those may be in different languages). All courses for the minor must be completed with a grade of C- or better.
Comparative Literature Major (B.A.) – Interdisciplinary
12 courses
Learning Objectives:
- Skills in close reading, and critical and analytical thinking.
- The ability to engage confidently and effectively in oral and written communication.
- Intellectual independence that comes with wide, in-depth reading and thinking.
- The ability to make complex, cogent, and well researched arguments.
- Foundational skills in one or more languages other than English.
- The ability and confidence to excel, grow, and lead in a variety of professions and fields of endeavor.
Requirements:
ENG 200, a course designated as a comparative literature seminar, and 10 courses in literature or an allied field that form a cohesive program and include one course in critical theory. The courses selected must include work in at least two different departments and include materials and approaches other than literary. The number of nonliterary courses must be approved by the advisor and coordinator. Students majoring in comparative literature must also demonstrate proficiency in an ancient or modern language, typically by taking two language courses at the 200-level or above (these may be in different languages). All courses for the major must be completed with a grade of C- or better.
Comparative Literature Minor – Interdisciplinary
7 courses
Requirements:
ENG 200, a course designated as a comparative literature seminar, and five courses in literature or an allied field from at least two different departments which include materials and approaches other than literary. Students minoring in comparative literature must also demonstrate proficiency in an ancient or modern language, typically by taking two language courses at the 200-level or above (these may be in different languages). All courses for the minor must be completed with a grade of C- or better.
Below is a list of disciplines and the courses that contribute directly or through cross-listing to the Comparative Literature curriculum. Please note the list is not exhaustive and is subject to change on a yearly basis as we continue to add new courses and fields:
Africana Studies
AFS 180 The Black Atlantic (McCorkle)
AFS 211 Black Earth (McCorkle)
AFS 230 Revolutionary Poetics of the Black Diaspora (McCorkle)
Art History
ARTH 306/406 Narrative in Asian Art (Blanchard)
Asian Studies
ASN 212 Women in Contemporary Chinese Culture (Zhou)
ASN/HIST 305 Showa through the Silver Screen (Yoshikawa)
ASN 342 Seminar: Chinese Cinema (Zhou)
Classics/Classical Studies
CLAS 230 Gender & Sexuality in Antiquity (Himmelhoch)
CLAS 240 Classics in Cinema (Himmelhoch)
English
ENG 187 From Novel to Film (Ivanchikova)
ENG 176 Global English Literature (Ivanchikova)
ENG. 200 Critical Methods (Staff)
ENG 205 Narrative Theory (Ivanchikova)
ENG 213 Environmental Literature (Ivanchikova)
ENG 246 Decadence (Cope)
ENG 276 Imagining the Middle East (Ivanchikova)
ENG 300 Literary Theory Since Plato – Critical Theory requirement (Cope)
ENG 304 Feminist Literary Criticism (Ivanchikova)
ENG 335 Fashioning Identity (Minott-Ahl)
ENG 340 The Architectural Novel (Minott-Ahl)
ENG 376 Who Am I? Identity in Global Literature (Ivanchikova)
ENG 441 Writing Women (Minott-Ahl)
ENG 475 Radical Futures (Ivanchikova)
Environmental Studies
ENV 202 Environmental Humanities (Murphy)
German
GERE 206 Madness in Modernity (Klaus)
Global Studies
GLS 101-01, Introduction to Global Studies: Crossing Borders (Dunn)
GLS 101-02, Introduction to Global Studies: Global Soccer (Wells)
GLS 201-01, Global Cultural Literacies (Klaus)
GLS 201-02, Global Cultural Literacies (Welsh)
French, Francophone, and Italian Studies
FRNE 285: The Troubadours (Wells)
ITAE 285: Dante’s Divine Comedy (Wells)
Media and Society
MDSC 120 Introduction to Global Television, (Patti)
MDSC 313 Global Cinema, (Patti)
Religious Studies
REL 243 Suffering and Salvation (Krummel).
Russian Area Studies
AMST 353/RUSE 353 Alienation and Intimacy: Russian-American Writers (Welsh)
Spanish and Hispanic Studies
SPN 304 Latinx, Latin American Literature (Farnsworth)
SPN 316 Voces de mujeres (Farnsworth)
SPN 344 Rutas Literarias (Rodríguez Mansilla)
SPN 355 Teatro (Farnsworth)
SPN 392 Dramaturgas (Farnsworth)
SPN 420 Contemporary Latin American Novel (Farnsworth)
SPN 450 Cervantes (Rodríguez Mansilla)
BIDS 286 Gender, Nation, Literature (Farnsworth/Ristow)
Gender, Sexuality and Intersectional Justice
GSIJ 100 (Bayer)
GSIJ 220 Politics of the Body (Bayer)
GSIJ 247 Psychology, History, and Feminism (Bayer)
GSIJ 309 Ecofeminism (Bayer)