What is Comparative Literature?

The study of literatures and cultures, languages and intercultural translation from a global perspective. The examining of interdisciplinary works including media and various forms of art: theater, dance, music, photography and film among others.

Beginning as a program of graduate study in 1963, and then an undergraduate program in 1966, Comparative Literature
became a department in 1975, with thirteen faculty members, nine with joint appointments.

Today there are nineteen faculty, ten of whom hold joint appointments with the following departments and centers: Center for African-American Studies, Classics, East Asian Studies, English, French & Italian, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Center for Human Values, Philosophy, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Spanish & Portuguese.