This program familiarizes students with the global context of the Western tradition, as well as with the Western tradition in literature and culture. Students study European, American and World literature, with an emphasis on theory and interpretation. Students should fulfill 36 credit hours, according to the following requirements:

I. Humanities, Tradition and the World: 3 courses (9 credit hours) in literature in translation including HUM 140 and 141 and one other course. The additional course of literature in translation be a course in Humanities beyond 141, or can come from any Department or Program within the College as approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies (currently, Professor Pat Ward).

(Examples include German 245-246 German Masterpieces in English Translation; Philosophy 210/Classics 210, Ancient Philosophy; Religious Studies 108 Themes in the Hebrew Bible *; Russian 221-222 Survey of Russian Literature; Spanish/ Portuguese 293, Contemporary Latin American Prose Fiction in English Translation) Selected Freshman Seminars ( 115s) may qualify if approved by the Director of the Program.

II. Primary Literature Field: 3 courses ( 9 credit hours)

A student who is also pursuing a major in the language chosen to satisfy the Primary Literature Field may count 6 appropriate hours of the language major towards the Primary Literature Field, and need not take an additional 3 hours in the Primary Literature Field, but may take instead an additional 3 hours in the Secondary Literature Field. Literature in the candidate's language of choice, other than the student's native language. Standard literary languages include (but are not limited to) French, Italian, German, Russian , Spanish, Portuguese, Latin and Greek. Courses may be selected from the attached list or in consultation with the Director of the Program, or with the Program's Director of Undergraduate Studies. Courses based on texts studied in translation do NOT satisfy this requirement.

Courses satisfying this requirement include the following :

English : English 208a-b, Representative British Writers; 210, Shakespeare; 211, Representative American Writers; 212, Southern Literature; 220, Chaucer; 221, Medieval Literature; 230, The Eighteenth-Century English Novel; 231, The Nineteenth-Century English Novel;
232a-232b, Twentieth-Century American Novel; 248, Sixteenth Century;
249, Seventeenth-Century Literature; 250, English Renaissance: The Drama; 252a-252b, Restoration and the Eighteenth Century; 253, The Age of Pope and Johnson; 254a-254b, The Romantic Period; 255, The Victorian Period; 256, Modern British and American Poetry; Yeats to Auden; 257, Seventeenth-Century Prose; 258, Contemporary British and American Poetry; 259, Nineteenth-Century American Poetry; 260, Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers; 262, Literature and Law; 263, African-American Literature; 264, Modern Irish Literature; 266, Nineteenth-Century American Literature; 271, Caribbean Literature; 279, Modern Drama; 280, Twentieth-Century British Drama; 281, The English Lyric; 283, Satire; 285, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama; 286a-286b, Twentieth-Century Drama; 287, Love and the Novel .

French : French 220, Introduction to French Literature; 222, Introduction to Francophone

Literature: 232, French Poetry from Villon to Malherbe; 235, Farce and Comedy; 236, Tragedy and drame; 237, The Early Modern Novel; 238, The Twentieth-Century Novel; 239, The African Novel; 240, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Their Times; 253, Literature of the Fantastic; 255, French Feminist Thought; 257, The Nineteenth-Century Novel and Society; 260, Enlightenment and Revolution; 261, Age of Louis XIV; 265, From Romanticism to Symbolism; 267, Twentieth-Century French Literature; 270, The French Literary Tradition.

German: German 221-222, Background and Main Currents of German Literature; 235, German Romanticism; 248, The German Lyric; 262, German Literature of the Middle Ages; 263, The Age of Goethe; 264, Nineteenth-Century Drama; 265, Twentieth-Century Drama; 266, Twentieth-Century Prose; 267, The German Novel of the Twentieth Century; 268 ,Modern German Short Story; 269, East German Literature; 280, Sturm und Drang.

Spanish: Spanish 203, Spanish and South American Literature; 230, Development of Lyric Poetry; 231, The Origins of Spanish Literature ; 232, Literature of the Spanish Golden Age; 233, Modern Spanish Literature; 234, Contemporary Spanish Literature; 236, Contemporary Literature of Spanish America; 237, Contemporary Lyric Poetry; 239, Development of the Novel; 240, The Contemporary Novel; 244, Afro-Hispanic Literature; 246, Don Quixote; 251, Development of Drama; 252, Contemporary Drama; 260, Development of the Short Story; 281, Theory and Praxis of Drama.

Classical Languages and Literatures : Greek 204, Intermediate Greek: Homer's Iliad ; Greek 215, The Greek Tragedians; Greek 216, Readings in Plato and Aristotle; Latin 201, Catullus and Horace; Latin 202, Ovid; Latin 206, Cicero and the Humanistic Tradition; 212, Roman Comedy; 215, The Roman Historians.

III. Secondary Literature Field: 2 courses ( 6 credit hours). Literature in another language from that chosen for Primary Field, courses customarily chosen from attached list or in consultation with the Director, or the Program's Director of Undergraduate Studies. The language of study may be the student's native language, including English. If the language is English, course material should consist primarily of works originally written in English and not translated. American, British or post-colonial literature in English are all eligible.

Courses based on texts studied in translation do NOT satisfy this requirement.

IV. World Literature: One course (3 credit hours) in literature in translation in Classics or Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, African or other non-modern or non-European Literatures, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Eligible courses may be taken in Comparative Literature or in other departments and Programs.

V. Analysis and Theory. One course (3 credit hours) at sophomore level or higher, in methods and paradigms in interpretive disciplines including among subject areas Anthropology, Art History, Cognitive Psychology (Peabody College), History, Political Science, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Women's Studies

Courses fulfilling this requirement would, for example, include the following:

Anthropology: 203, Anthropological Linguistics; 206, Theories of Culture and Human Nature; 209, Human Diversity; Classical Studies: 227, Ancient Greek Art and Architecture; Fine Arts: 215, Formation and Power of Christian Images; 227, Ancient Greek Art and Architecture; Philosophy: 212, Modern Philosophy; 226, Phenomenology ; 231, Philosophy of History; 241, Contemporary Issues in Aesthetics; Political Science: 206, Foundations of Marxism; 207, Liberalism and Its Critics; Psychology and Human Development: 1700, Social and Emotional Context of Cognition (Peabody) ; Religious Studies: 120, Religion, Sexuality, Power; 223, Ethics and Feminism; 234, Post-Freudian Theories; 235, Freudian Theories and Religion; Sociology: 239, Men, Women and Society (This is the same as Anthropology 242 and Women's Studies 242). Women's Studies: 223, Ethics and Feminism; 246, Feminist Theory.

VI. One elective course (3 credit hours) from one of the categories in sections I-V. Particular "Selected Topics" courses may be approved upon occasion. Final selection of all courses satisfying requirements in sections I-VI must be approved by the Program's Direction of Undergraduate Studies.

VII. One course (3 credits): Senior Seminar in Methods in Comparative Literature and Theories of Reading and Interpretation

Students wishing to qualify for consideration for the Honors Program in Comparative Literature must have a grade point average of 3.000. To graduate with honors in Comparative Literature, a student must (a) complete all the requirements of the standard Comparative Literature Major Course work including 6 hours in Honors sections ( 299a-299b); b) maintain a 3.000 average overall and 3.300 in the major ; c) be admitted into the Honors seminar (299 a) of the fall of the senior year ; d) complete a thesis in the senior year (299b); e) pass an oral examination, based principally on the thesis, in the spring of the senior year.

Honors students are encouraged to take one graduate course in their primary literature field, or in Comparative Literature. Students taking the Honors seminar (299a) are not required to take the Senior Seminar in Methods in Comparative Literature and Theories of Reading and Interpretation, though they may choose to take this course as one of their electives.

The minor in Comparative Literature consists of a minimum of 18 credit hours.
Students are required to take 3 courses (9 credit hours) in literature in translation, including HUM 140 and HUM 141 and one other course, as described in section I of requirements for the major. Students must also take two courses (6 credit hours) in primary literary field, as in Section II of requirements for the major, and the Senior Seminar in Methods in Comparative Literature and Theories of Reading and Interpretation (3 credit hours).