The program fosters the study of literature and culture from a cross-national and global perspective. The core courses teach students to appreciate the variety of meanings texts acquire in different social, cultural, institutional and creative contexts, among them law, medicine, art and music, and different social contexts, such as gender, ethnicity, race and class.

Advanced courses branch out from this beginning, from further explorations into literary theory to specific investigations of literary genres and periods within particular national and cultural traditions.

Comparative Literature is a challenging major given its theory and language requirements but it is also a very flexible program, allowing students to take courses in a variety of departments in the College. Students with interdisciplinary interests in literature and other fields such as philosophy, history, political science, art, film, or music, will find the requirements very congenial and well suited for a double major.

The program provides students with a cosmopolitan intellectual background that will be increasingly in demand in an era of globalization. Comparative literature graduates have gone on to graduate studies and careers in an impressive variety of fields.