CONTENTS

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM OF STUDY

JUNIOR PAPER: GUIDELINES
SENIOR THESIS: GUIDELINES
TRANSLATION THESIS: GUIDELINES
CREATIVE THESIS: GUIDELINES
SENIOR COMPREHENSIVES
READING LIST
FACULTY and ADVISERS
DEPARTMENTAL AVERAGES
CALENDAR
    The Department of Comparative Literature is now on the Internet.

www.princeton.edu/~complit

The Department of Comparative Literature

The Department of Comparative Literature invites students to approach literature from a broad, cross-cultural perspective. The curriculum encompasses literatures and languages from around the world, as well as interdisciplinary work of many types. While each student in the Department is expected to focus his or her studies on a particular foreign language and literature, an interest in the way different literatures illuminate one another, or enter into dialogue with other disciplines, media, or forms of art, is fundamental to our work. Students motivated by a desire to understand literature in the broadest terms, as well as those interested in particular examples of literary comparison, will find an intellectual home in the Department of Comparative Literature. The flexibility of the major has always been one of its strong points. With the guidance of the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the junior and senior advisers, each student creates a program of study tailored to his or her intellectual interests, choosing courses and independent projects that contribute to the whole.

Departmental Plan of Study

Prerequisites: Foreign Language Requirement.  To enter the department, students must demonstrate their ability to do serious literary work in at least one foreign language, usually by successful completion of a 200-level or 300-level course in a foreign literature or of an advanced language course.  Students who major in Comparative Literature are also expected to study at least one other foreign language and to be capable of reading literary texts in this second foreign language before they graduate.  Study of the second language may often be accomplished through summer study abroad; students with an interest in this option should inquire about it when planning their program with the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Introductory Courses. Students who wish to major in Comparative Literature are advised (though not required) to take Comparative Literature 201-202, Humanistic Studies 205-206, or Humanistic Studies 216-219 in their sophomore year or earlier.

Early Concentration: Qualified students may elect early concentration and enroll in the department at the beginning of the spring term of sophomore year.  They may begin their departmental course of study as well as their independent work.

Program of Study

Students in Comparative Literature select courses from a wide range of offerings throughout the university and are encouraged to construct a program of study to match their individual interests. Beginning with the class of 2005, nine departmental courses are required of each student, chosen according to the type of comparative work pursued. Comparative Literature 300, the Junior Seminar, counts as one of the nine, and is required of all students in the fall term of their junior year. This course is especially designed to introduce students to the history and methodology of the field, as well as to different avenues of comparative study. If study abroad makes it impossible to take the Junior Seminar in the junior year, the course may be taken in the senior year instead.   Beginning in the academic year 2004-2005, students with one semester abroad will be allowed to choose 8 departmentals, one of which must be COM 300, for the calculation of their departmental G.P.A.  Students with two semesters abroad will choose 7 departmentals, one of which must be COM 300.  This option applies only to study abroad programs undertaken during the school year and approved by the department.