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Why Comparative Literature at UCI?Congratulations on admission to UCI! And welcome to the Department of Comparative Literature, one of UCI’s most highly ranked departments: 8th in the country in 2003. Critical Theory, a field with which many of our faculty are affiliated, is currently ranked #1 in the country. These rankings may come a bit as a surprise to you because the term “Comparative Literature” is not one that is widely familiar (in large part because high school classes in literature generally go under the name of “English”). So I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about our major. Comparative Literature trains students in the cultural literacy needed to be citizens of a globalized world. Our faculty expertise covers the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. We are like such majors as Global Cultures or International Relations, but we focus on teaching our students to be critical readers of cultural phenomena. So you don’t only read literature, you may ask? Not necessarily. When comparative literature was first established as a discipline at the end of the nineteenth century, its practitioners read literary texts, but today many of us also read films, monuments, advertisements, and political phenomena. We also believe that to be critical readers students need to know the critical and analytic terms and models that have been useful to comparatists in our ongoing effort to interpret the world and the texts we read. We draw on philosophy, social science and the arts in the development of these critical models, and we introduce students to critical thinking both through the objects and historical events we interpret and through the great works of literature, philosophy, and the arts. We also want our students to be multilingual. You will read a wide range of literatures in translation in our classes, but we also require you to be able to read literature in a foreign language. In addition we help our majors take advantage of the UC Education Abroad Program. There are dozens of programs from which to choose, depending on student interests. Students study abroad for a summer, a semester, or a whole year. We make sure the credits students receive count toward graduation. Last but not least, Comparative Literature is a small department, so you will get the kind of attention that is rare at a large public university. Every student has a faculty advisor and can request a graduate student mentor with whom to chat about his or her ideas and classes. We offer the experience of a small liberal arts education within UCI. What kinds of jobs can you expect with a Comparative Literature major? Any professional work that requires critical thinking and communication skills, proficiency in other languages and cultural literacy. Some examples include: Pick up one of our brochures to learn more about the major and our classes. You can also look us up on the web at http://www.humanities.uci.edu/complit/. Please feel free to contact me (or any other faculty member) about our program, or call our Administrative Coordinator for undergraduate issues, Karin Von Renthe-Fink, at 824-9629. Our office at 243 Humanities Instructional Building is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We hope to see you next year! Susan C. Jarratt (sjarratt@uci.edu) |
