Comparative Literature is the study of the world through its literatures and cultures. Critical theory and translation provide frameworks for making moves: across languages, media, geographic borders, and political visions.  In the Department of Comparative Literature, graduate and undergraduate students immerse themselves in national and regional literatures—of Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Europe—while simultaneously placing those cultural practices within dynamic global exchanges, both historical and contemporary. Through courses, conferences, collaborative projects, and digital media, Comparative Literature at UCI advances critical cosmopolitanism—a kind of worldliness cultivated by creative engagements with power, peoples, and their symbolic practices. From novel to poetry, drama to film, monuments to political protest, comics to audio, urban space to visual culture—Comparative Literature introduces students to global cultures in the widest sense, and to the theoretical lenses essential for putting them in perspective. Writing, speaking, visualizing, blogging, social networking: through multiple media Comparative Literature students at every level interpret and engage with other academics and publics outside the academy. Together, students of Comparative Literature strive for a continually evolving practice of critical awareness and political action: a global literacy and citizenship through which to face the challenges of life and work in the 21st century.

The Department seeks to foster and maintain a lively community that includes undergraduates, graduates, and faculty, and to that end holds a variety of meetings and activities so that majors can get to know one another and other members of the Department.

Planning a Program of Study

All students must meet the University Requirements.

All students must meet the School Requirements.

12 courses (48 units) required for the major.

Department Requirements for the Major

A. Complete:
COM LIT 60A	World Literature
COM LIT 60B	Reading with Theory
COM LIT 60C	Cultural Studies
B. Complete:
COM LIT 190W	Advanced Seminar in Comparative Literature and Theory (capstone seminar)
C. Six upper-division courses in Comparative Literature.
D. Two additional courses selected from upper- or lower-division Comparative Literature courses. Other upper-division courses offered in the School of Humanities may apply via petition with approval of the program director or chair.

Residence Requirement for the Comparative Literature Major: COM LIT 190W and four additional upper-division courses in Comparative Literature or other upper-division courses offered in the School of Humanities must be completed successfully at UCI. By petition, two of the four may be taken through the UC Education Abroad Program, providing course content is approved by the appropriate program advisor or chair.

Optional Specializations

The following specializations are available to students in the major. Courses taken for specialization requirements may substitute for major electives.

Specialization in Translation Studies

A. Complete:
COM LIT 101W	An Introduction to Translation Studies
B. Complete one upper-division foreign literature course requiring texts in the original language. 1

Specialization in Critical Theory

A. Complete:
COM LIT 110	Topics in Critical Theory
B. Complete one upper-division Comparative Literature seminar (in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies) with a strong component of critical theory. Options include: 2,3
COM LIT 107	Colonialisms and Postcolonialisms
COM LIT 130	Gender, Sexuality, Race, Class
COM LIT 131	Psychoanalysis and Culture
COM LIT 132	Discourse, Ideologies, and Politics
COM LIT 140	Critical Cultural Studies

¹

By petition only, students may also fulfill this requirement with one COM LIT Independent Study course that covers literature in the original foreign language and requires a 5- to 8-page translation project, if other foreign literature courses are not available.

²

By petition only, students may also fulfill this requirement with one COM LIT Independent Study course that focuses on critical theory and requires a 5- to 8-page project.

³

Students may petition to have a second COM LIT 110 count toward section B.

Courses in Comparative Literature train students to read critically, to think and write analytically in a variety of genres and media, to learn languages, and to do independent research, always in a global context. This course of study helps qualify majors for careers in education, international relations, law, government, technology, communications and media, nonprofit organizations, and publishing. In recent years graduates from the Department of Comparative Literature have won Fulbrights, gone on to law school, nursing school, and master’s programs in social work or psychology, and found jobs in public relations firms, done editorial work, and conducted clinical research in pharmaceutical firms. The Comparative Literature major is also excellent preparation for an academic career. Graduates have gone on to Ph.D. programs at Michigan, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and other schools. Many also teach English, world literature, and modern foreign languages at the high-school level.