Declaration Day is quickly approaching on Wednesday, March 8th! Do you know which subject you'll major or second major in?
NYU Comparative Literature cordially invites you to join us at Room 222, 19 University Place on Friday, February 24th at 2 PM for our departmental spotlight event, where you'll hear about the program from current members of the Comp Lit community. There will be lunch and refreshments available! For students who prefer to attend remotely, please join us HERE on Zoom.
In the Department of Comparative Literature, we examine a full range of literature from across the globe, and encourage students to think about how national literatures traverse linguistic, geographic, cultural, political, and disciplinary boundaries. While they normally focus on one or two non-English languages, our students adopt a global perspective and interdisciplinary outlook as they delve into literary traditions in relation to other media and disciplines, such as cinema studies, art history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, history, and linguistics. Faculty members offer courses embracing the ancient and modern periods of world literature and thought, exploring critical, theoretical, and historical issues, as well as problems of translation and representation in the broadest sense. The department hosts a lively array of events, speakers, and conferences each year, as well as the student-run literary journal brio.
The major comprises ten courses, and students can choose between two tracks: Literature and Literary-Cultural Studies. Introduction to Comparative Literature is offered every Spring, one of two required courses, in which students critically unpack the founding myths of the discipline before exploring the limits of US and Europe-centered modes of literary comparison. It can be taken at any time during the major. Please see the program outline below and Spring 2023 course list for more details on this and our current course offerings.
Comp Lit majors have gone on to pursue careers in a wide range of fields, including publishing, journalism, academia, international relations, international law, the arts, education, public policy, film and entertainment, business, translation, and information technology. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Comparative Literature Department Spotlight
