Comparative Literature

Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy

For More Information

Campus address: Calhoun Hall (CAL) 217, phone (512) 471-1925; campus mail code: B5003

Mailing address: The University of Texas at Austin, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature, 208 West 21st Street B5003, Austin TX 78712

E-mail: complit@austin.utexas.edu

URL: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/complit/

Facilities for Graduate Work

Comparative literature offers a core of courses in the discipline and draws on the teaching and scholarly resources of faculty members in more than twenty programs in language, literature, and area studies. In addition to the University Libraries facilities, special collections in the Harry Ransom Center and the Benson Latin American Collection, for example, offer opportunities for research.

Areas of Study

Students seeking the Master of Arts degree are expected to develop a broad knowledge of the theory and practice of comparative literature, both through coursework and through the completion of a report or thesis. In addition, they expand their acquaintance with a single national literature by studying it at the graduate level.

Students seeking the doctoral degree are expected to develop extensive knowledge of one national literature and broad knowledge of a second. They are required to complete, in effect, the equivalent of a master’s degree in one national literature, while demonstrating proficiency in either two additional foreign languages or in one additional foreign language and a third area of relevant study. The program also prepares students in literary theory and criticism and in the scholarly and critical methods of studying the relationships among various literatures. Interdisciplinary study is also encouraged, as students explore the interrelationships between literature and other fields (such as art history, anthropology, film, philosophy, and psychology) as part of their programs of work. After fulfilling all requirements in the areas of literature, theory, and language and passing both qualifying and comprehensive examinations, students choose a period, genre, or historical, cultural, intellectual, or critical problem on which to write a dissertation.

Work toward the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy is offered in collaboration with the Departments of Asian Studies, Classics, English, French and Italian, Germanic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. Courses in support of the student’s area of specialization are offered in various units, including the many interdisciplinary area studies centers within the College of Liberal Arts; the Departments of Anthropology, Art and Art History, History, Linguistics, and Philosophy; the Butler School of Music; the College of Communication; and other units approved by the graduate adviser in comparative literature.

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee in the spring semester 2013.

Omoniyi Afolabi Kamran Ali Samer M Ali Katherine M Arens Aaron Bar-Adon Daniela Bini Douglas G Biow Marc Bizer Pascale R Bos Philip M Broadbent Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang Matthew Cohen Ann Cvetkovich Hector Dominguez-Ruvalcaba Tarek Adnan El-Ariss Alison K Frazier Alan W Friedman Thomas J Garza Mohammad Ghanoonparvar John M Gonzalez Karen Grumberg Sabine Hake Barbara J Harlow Michael P Harney Geraldine Heng Neville Hoad Syed A Hyder Michael Johnson

Ernest N Kaulbach David D Kornhaber Tatiana Kuzmic Wayne Lesser Naomi E Lindstrom Keith A Livers Carol H MacKay Lisa L Moore Fehintola A Mosadomi Karen A Pagani Michael A Pesenson Guy P Raffa Wayne A Rebhorn Jr Cory A Reed Elizabeth Richmond-Garza Sonia Roncador Cesar A Salgado Martha A Selby Helene Tissieres Chien-Hsin Tsai Jeffrey Walker Alexandra K Wettlaufer Lynn R Wilkinson Jennifer M Wilks Hannah C Wojciehowski Helena Woodard Marjorie C Woods