The undergraduate program in Comparative Literature aims to develop students’ verbal and written communication skills, their ability to read analytically and critically, and their global knowledge of literary cultures and the specific properties of literary texts. The program allows students to study imaginative literature with several methods and a consciousness of methodology.

A Comparative Literature major prepares a student as a reader and interpreter of literature through the sophisticated examination of texts and by developing a critical vocabulary with which to discuss them. Along with providing core courses that introduce students to significant literary phenomena in a comparative frame, the program of study accommodates the interests of students in areas such as specific regions, historical periods, and interdisciplinary connections between literature and other fields such as philosophy, music, the visual arts, gender, and queer theory, and race and ethnicity. Attention to verbal expression and interpretive argument serves students who will proceed into careers requiring strong language and communication skills and cross-cultural knowledge of the world.