Undergraduate

Why Major in Comparative Literature?

• Read the most exciting writing from around the world
• Explore other cultures through their writings and arts
• Study other languages in order to expand your own experience
• Discover correlations between literature, the arts, and other fields of knowledge
• Learn analytical and critical skills useful in interpreting texts of all sorts, from political speeches to religious classics as well as literary work
• Understand your own culture from new perspectives

As the study of literature has become an ever more international project, the perspectives of comparative study, particularly literary theory, inform to an ever greater extent the critical analyses of literary scholars in a variety of departments across the Washington University campus, not only in the Humanities (the other literature departments) but also among the Social Sciences as well. The insights you gain from the critical reading of literary texts can also inform your reading in areas such as Art History and Anthropology.

A Major in Comparative Literature Offers Many Possibilities

Comparative Literature majors find internships and jobs--in the United States and abroad--where they do research, write and edit, or teach, while gaining experience and learning about fields as diverse as the environment and the record industry.

Majors in Comparative Literature can enter degree programs in professional fields including Journalism, Law, Librarianship, and Business. You can study Education, to become certified to teach literature or languages in a high school. Or you can pursue a graduate degree in Comparative Literature or a national literation in preparation for a career in teaching and research at a college or university, in a language and literature, Comparative Literature, or English department.