Comparative Literature

The Comparative Literature major is an interdisciplinary course of study allowing students with sufficient literary background and linguistic preparation to pursue interests in literature, theory, and criticism across the boundaries of language, nation, culture, artistic medium, genre, and historical period. Basic areas of the discipline include literary theory, literature and the other arts, East-West studies, European languages and literatures, and translation. The major draws on courses in the Comparative Literature program as well as offerings in many other departments.

Beyond the specific requirements of the major or minor, students should, in consultation with their advisors and the program director, define an individualized area of emphasis or inquiry. Thus several courses presented for the major might focus on a specific period or movement (the Renaissance, Modernism, Surrealism), a mode or genre (tragedy, lyric poetry), a problematic (literature and the other arts, translation), a theme (death, love, madness) or an approach (feminism, post-structuralism). For more information, see www.oberlin.edu/complit.