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Undergraduate Program

Comparative Literature reaches beyond any single national culture to consider relations between various literatures and cultures, methods of study, periods, and media. Courses consider a wide range of topics-for example, the impact of colonialism on African novels, the relationships between Asian film and literature, literatures and cultures of the Middle East, global women's writing, comparative queer theories, gender and madness, phenomenology and deconstruction, and images of cannibalism in France and Latin America. All Comparative Literature courses are taught in English, and the texts are read in English and/or English translation. Students encounter literatures in original languages through the department's foreign language requirement. Comparative Literature is well suited for students interested in international issues, critical theory, the history of inter- and cross-cultural contact, and the ways in which literatures and cultures dialogue with one another across time and space. Most Comparative Literature classes are small and intimate and emphasize student discussion. The Department also sponsors meetings and activities for majors so that students can get to know one another.

Careers for the Comparative Literature Major

Comparative Literature trains students to do independent research, learn languages, and think and write analytically, always in an international context. This helps qualify majors for careers in education, international relations, law, government, communications and media, or journalism. It is also excellent preparation for an academic career. Many graduates of our Department have gone on to complete graduate degrees in Comparative Literature, which prepare university teachers of English, Classics, modern foreign languages, Near Eastern Studies, East Asian Studies, and Comparative Literature, as well as in interdisciplinary programs.

Requirements for the Bachelor's Degree

University Requirements: See pages 59-64 of the Catalog.
School Requirements: See page 254 of the Catalog.

Departmental Requirements for the Comparative Literature Major
Effective Fall 2007

Successful completion of 11 classes and the Department's foreign literature requirement, as follows:

A. Comparative Literature 60 A, B, C, and

B. Five upper-division courses in Comparative Literature, and

C. Two additional upper-division Comparative Literature courses or other courses offered in the School of Humanities, and

D. 190W(capstone seminar), and

E. Competence in a foreign language sufficient for reading and understanding literature and culture in that language, which may be demonstrated through course work in one of the following ways:

I. Two upper-division courses in a foreign literature or culture in which texts are read in the original, or

II. One upper-division course in a foreign literature or culture in which texts are read in the original, plus one upper-division course in a literature or culture in translation.

III. Students of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese may take three years of language training plus one approved upper-division course in the literature or culture of that language in translation.

IV. Students who study Greek and Latin fulfill the entire requirement by successfully completing two years of college level language training.

An Independent Study may substitute for any part of the foreign language requirement when classes in the language or literature desired are not available.

Credits from the UC Education Abroad Program may be substituted for Departmental language and upper-division requirements.

Residence Requirement for the Comparative Literature Major

CL 190 and four additional upper-division courses in Comparative Literature or other courses offered in the School of Humanities programs must be completed successfully at UC Irvine. 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.

Undergraduate Courses