Requirements

Required Courses

Thirty advanced credits in all, consisting of

• MCT 3309 Introduction to Comparative Literature
• three epoch courses, from at least two epochs (Medieval, Early Modern, Modern)
• one literary tradition course in the students chosen foreign language
• one literary survey course in a different linguistic tradition (taught in English: MCTF 3305 or MCTG 3305), or another lit trad course in a second foreign language. (Note: if your area of interest is, e.g. film, music, or drama, you could substitute here a survey course from another department)
• two focus courses in particular linguistic/literary/artistic traditions
• MCT 4347 Seniors Thesis or MCT 4349 Honors Thesis
• one elective

The CLT major allows integration of various kinds of foreign-language components, notably a Language Concentration (four courses), and can also easily be combined with a French, German, or Spanish major.

Further requirements

Language competency

Students electing to major in this program should have reading competence in one European language by the beginning of the Junior year, and are strongly encouraged (but not required) to acquire reading knowledge in another European language.

The CLT Thesis

The senior thesis is preferably written in the first semester of senior year, or in the semester that the student is not writing another thesis for another major. Students register for 3 thesis hours in that semester.

The purpose of a senior or honors thesis in CLT is to allow students to reflect on intersections of either two different literary traditions, or intersections of literature and other arts, with the goal of synthesizing elements from several of their courses. The thesis must be comparative in nature, i.e. involve at least two different linguistic traditions or discuss interrelations of literature and other arts. For example, the student may choose to discuss the use of a common motif in two or more texts, examine the differences of a literary epoch in two linguistic traditions, analyze how a visual work of art is transposed into a poem or story, or show how music and text interrelate in an opera or in a poem set to music. The thesis may draw on, expand, or otherwise incorporate papers written in other courses, with the consent of the instructors and the thesis director.

The Comprehensive Exam

The comprehensive exam is an oral exam that should be taken in the last semester of the senior year. Its main goal is to function as a way for students to structure, to divide up, and to provide a narrative of, the unfolding of European literature in important comparative moments. The exam should reflect your course work and your personal interest, and can (and should) be closely linked to the focus of your thesis. Students are also encouraged to use the comps presentation to make connections between the various the courses they have taken at UD, including from other departments (e.g. philosophy or even science). The student will be asked to give a 15-20 minute presentation on either:

a)      at least three comparative moments in 2 or more national literatures of his or her choice

1. for this option you would select three historical periods ( e.g. Middle Ages, Romanticism, Modernism) where influences, cross-contaminations, parallels etc. are obvious, either between two or more national literatures or between literature and the other arts, like music, painting, film.
2. You give a broad overview of those comparative moments and their place within European history, with three specific textual examples of the connections (e.g. German and French medieval poetry; Becquer and Wordsworth [Spanish and English Romantic poets]; and European avant-garde movements)

b)      one particular historical epoch, with consideration of at least 3 media (choosing from literature, music, visual arts, or film)

1. for this option you would focus on one particular period, and discuss it in great depths
2. your three comparative moments would need to involve at least three different media, e.g. if your focus period is Modernism/Avant-garde, you could do: a German and a French silent film; an Expressionist poem and painting; Expressionism vs. Surrealism in art and poetry; or the influence of Sigmund Freud or Einstein on Modernist literature.

Suggested Sequence for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literary Traditions