BA Literature

Comparative Literature (commonly abbreviated as Comp. Lit. ) offers students the opportunity to pursue their love of literature beyond national and disciplinary boundaries. It situates the study of literature in a 21st century global context that takes account of cultural and linguistic diversity as well as changing technologies and new media. Majors study literary texts in at least one language other than English, delving into works from the ancient as well as the modern world, and exploring cultural productions from nonWestern traditions as well as the socalled great books of the West. Students study literature s intersections with other media and disciplines such as philosophy, religion, history, law, film studies, and psychoanalysis, and take courses in areas as varied as Exemplary Novels, French poetry, Russian Film, Literature and Justice, Postcolonial Popular Culture, Disaster Literature or Latin American Magical Realism. Comp. Lit. students also explore important theoretical questions: How do we define the human How does language function in society What is the relationship between ethics and religion How do new technologies require us to rethink social, political, and ethical issues How do we understand the relationship between history (events that happened) and memory (how we remember those events).