We study world literature for our own cultivation and career opportunities but, above all, for the sheer joy of knowing the world, its sounds and sights, its many perceptions of reality and multiple experiences of human survival. It is the comparison of one literature with another, or others, and the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression. It invokes relationships between literature and other fields, from arts to sciences, folklore to religion. Every effort is made to achieve flexibility in the Comparative and World Literature curriculum without compromising academic standards or integrity.
Students have the opportunity to study with experts both within and outside of the department.
Students wishing to major or minor in this department must therefore plan their programs and maintain close contact with the department advisor. All students' major programs receive the advisor's personal attention and are individualized to suit their backgrounds, academic interests, career goals, and special needs for optimum development. 9 units These three courses must be chosen in consultation with departmental advisers. The overall goal of the program electives is to combine a sense of the historic, linguistic, and critical breadth of literary studies with a student-defined area of focus that fits within the general discipline of comparative literature. In addition to the following distribution requirements, all majors must have reading competence for literature written in at least one language in addition to English.