Comparative Literature Courses
Any course offered in the field of
literature in any department or program may be counted toward
the Comparative Literature minor subject to the approval
of the Comparative Literature coordinator. Each student should choose
courses for the minor in consultation with a member of the Comparative
Literature faculty according to the focus of the student’s planned
program of study.
The following courses specifically
have a Comparative Literature focus:
CMP 230/Classical
Traditions 1
course unit
(annually)
same as LIT 230
Introduces students to a literary tradition that originates in the classical
period. The course will put readings into literary and historical context by
focusing on a pivotal literary moment or text, selected by the instructor and
analogous in function to the stationary foot of a geometric compass. Around this
stationary foot or pivotal moment, the course will explore literary and
historical relations—the textual “ancestors” and “progeny” that make up the
particular classical tradition under consideration, as well as the surrounding
philological, social, and political contexts of the selected pivotal moment in
that tradition. The course will also draw upon at least two distinct cultures,
at least one of which must be classical.
CMP 231/World Literature to
1700 1 course
unit
(annually)
(same as LIT 231; replaces ENGL 217)
Introduces students to selected literary traditions before 1700. The course will
put readings into literary and historical context by focusing on a pivotal
literary moment or text, selected by the instructor and analogous in function to
the stationary foot of a geometric compass. Around this stationary foot or
pivotal moment, the course will explore literary and historical relations—the
textual “ancestors” and “progeny” that influenced or rewrote the pivotal text of
the course, as well as the surrounding philological, social, and political
contexts of the selected literary moment. The course will also draw upon at
least two distinct cultures or traditions, at least one of which must be
non-English speaking.
CMP 232/World Literature since
1700 1 course unit
(every semester)
(same as LIT 232; replaces ENGL 218)
Introduces students to selected literary traditions since 1700. The course will
put readings into literary and historical context by focusing on a pivotal
literary moment or text, selected by the instructor and analogous in function to
the stationary foot of a geometric compass. Around this stationary foot or
pivotal moment, the course will explore literary and historical relations—the
textual “ancestors” and “progeny” that influenced or rewrote the pivotal text of
the course, as well as the surrounding philological, social, and political
contexts of the selected literary moment. The course will also draw upon at
least two distinct cultures or traditions, at least one of which must be
non-English speaking.
CMP
342/Mythology
1 course unit
(annually)
(same as LIT 342; replaces ENGL 342)
This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to study
significant myths and legends which have influenced the shape and content of
both Eastern and Western literature and to acquaint them with the shifting and
conflicting ways in which mythology has been transmitted and studied from the
ancient world to the contemporary, from the East to the West.
CMP 343/Late Medieval
Writers 1
course unit
(occasionally)
(same as LIT 343)
An examination of the flowering of vernacular literature that occurred in
western Europe in the 14th century. Emphasis will be placed on
reconstructing how and why fourteenth-century writers, such as Dante, Juan Ruiz,
Boccaccio, Froissart, Petrarch, Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan, came to create
a vernacular tradition that transcended national and linguistic boundaries.
Topics in the course may include fourteenth-century literary theory,
marginalized and competing voices in the century, classical and vernacular
precursors, material production of books in the period, social and political
change in late medieval Europe, international relations of the period, and
theories of literary influence.
CMP
346/Romanticism
1 course unit
(occasionally)
(same as LIT 346)
This course will explore the phenomenon of Romanticism in Great Britain, the
United States, and Europe from a comparative perspective. Emphasis will be
placed on analyzing how Romanticism intersects with other literary trends of the
period and on how it develops as a reaction to the classical ideals of the
European Enlightenment and the eighteenth century.
CMP
370/Topics
1 course unit
(occasionally)
(same as LIT 394; replaces ENGL 344)
Themes and content will vary from semester to semester and from instructor to
instructor. However, all offerings of this course will seek to cultivate
students’ skills in comparative literary and cultural analysis and to foster a
level of intellectual engagement with texts, contexts, and traditions that
recognizes the benefits to be derived from pursuing advanced study of literary
works in their original languages.
CMP 498/Independent
Research variable course
units
(replaces CPLT 499)
The capstone experience for the Comparative Literature minor, designed by the
student, approved by the coordinator of the Comparative Literature Program, and
supervised by a faculty member of the student’s choice. An original research
project that ties together the two (or more) distinct cultures upon which the
student’s coursework for the Comparative Literature minor has focused.
Proposed Future Courses
CMP 369/World Authors
CMP 375/Literary Theory
CMP 3XX/World Texts in Global Contexts
CMP 3XX/History in Literature
CMP 3XX/Translation Theory and Practice |