• Drawing on faculty from the various literature departments as well as from other disciplines (such as art history, film studies, music, and philosophy), the CLS program reflects the belief that literary texts can best be understood within the context of diverse literary traditions and other cultural phenomena. CLS encourages students not only to read and interpret works of literature but also to reflect on the assumptions, methods, and goals that shape literary and other humanistic studies.
  • In contrast to literature departments in which students trace the development of one literature in a particular culture over a specific time period, CLS juxtaposes literatures of different cultures and epochs in a variety of ways. Comparative literature studies the themes, conventions, and movements shared by distinct literary traditions as well as the features that differentiate them. Though the field has traditionally dealt with the canonical texts of Western literature, Northwestern’s CLS program strongly encourages students to explore literatures outside the European and American canon (especially those of Africa and Asia) as well as expand the Western canon to include the literatures of excluded or marginalized groups.