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.

Our major is open and flexible, and we encourage both double-majors and minors.