Bachelor of Comparative Literature at University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Literature is a cultural site where the present is negotiated, the past excavated, and the future envisioned. In a globalized world where the circulation of blogs, legal documents, political manifestos, manuscripts, online journals, and images constantly shapes and reshapes human experience, understanding texts is utterly essential.

Majoring in comparative literature provides students with tools for analyzing texts, writing, editing, translating, and thinking across disciplinary and national boundaries. Our majors engage a variety of literary traditions and historical periods, from Latin American concrete poetry to Yiddish experimental fiction. The department offers rigorous training in the following areas of strength of our internationally recognized faculty: French, German, Italian, Hebrew studies, classics, critical theory, East Asian literatures and arts, performance studies, film and media, poetry and poetics, gender and sexuality, postcolonial theory, English and American literatures, early modern and Renaissance studies and Slavic literatures and cultures.

All members of the department are deeply invested in the academic development of our students and value you as an integral part of the Comparative Literature community at UC Berkeley. The department aims to develop your creative and intellectual interests and talents. As a major, you receive the opportunity to pursue rigorous research in a variety of literatures according to your interests, engage in team-based projects, participate in discussions about political, aesthetic, and social issues, and develop a nuanced cross-cultural understanding of historical and social processes. All of our students have close contact with cutting edge scholars in their fields in a small classroom setting, with extensive individualized work. Our undergraduate majors publish and edit their own journal of comparative literature (CLUJ) and run an annual research conference. Most majors also choose to spend time in study abroad to deepen their cultural and linguistic knowledge.

Our students benefit from training in comparative literature and go on to work in a variety of professions, including journalism, media, publishing, translation, theater, and politics as well as in many roles in the legal, corporate, social, medical, and arts sectors. Additionally, we prepare our students to enter top graduate programs in the US and abroad.

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you are not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong."

"F. Scott Fitzgerald

Declaring the Major

If you are thinking of majoring in Comparative Literature, come meet with the major adviser at your earliest opportunity. You will probably discover that the requirements are flexible enough to suit you, and may find it to your advantage to ask the department's adviser to suggest relevant freshman and sophomore courses.

Majors must see the major adviser each semester to plan a program for the coming year in order to pre-enroll via the CalCentral enrollment system. The Major Requirements tab to the right outlines the basic requirements. Keep in mind that most of these requirements will be adjusted according to the language areas in which you plan to work and your own long range plans.

Honors Program

Students who have attained junior standing may be admitted to the honors program if they:

1. Have accumulated at least an overall 3.55 grade point average (GPA) and at least a 3.65 GPA in the major.
2. Have completed at least 8 upper division units in literature, including COM LIT 100 or the equivalent.
3. Are prepared to do upper division work in one vernacular foreign literature or one classical literature.

In addition to the requirements for the regular program outlined above, candidates for the BA with honors in Comparative Literature must demonstrate, through either examination or coursework, a sense of the historical development of their principal literature, and earn a grade of B or higher for an honors thesis in COM LIT H195. Students interested in the honors program are urged to consult an adviser in the Department of Comparative Literature at their earliest opportunity.

Minor Program

The Department of Comparative Literature has a new minor program, open to all UC Berkeley students regardless of college.  The minor comprises of 5 courses; the 3 "core" classes required for the major (COM LIT 100, CL151-165, and COM LIT 190) along with two courses from the "secondary" literature.  For more information, please review the department site at complit.berkeley.edu or contact the Comparative Literature major adviser at [email protected].

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1. Achieve solid proficiency in at least one language other than English, to the level needed to work with original texts in at least two national literary traditions.
2. Attain a solid grounding in at least two national literary traditions, one of which is considered the student's primary literature.
3. Understand key characteristics of historical periods in the primary literature.
4. Recognize and understand the workings of genre in literature (novel, poetic form, epic, drama).
5. Achieve fluency in the use of major critical and theoretical modes of analysis.
6. Situate literary movements in their relation to historical and cultural contexts.
7. Analyze aspects of literature that can or must be studied cross-culturally (such as translation, avant-garde movements, romanticism, modernism, diasporic literatures).

Skills

1. Critical reading. Students develop the capacity to:
   • Perform a strong and revealing close analysis of a text.
   • Recognize the literary and rhetorical features that structure texts and shape their reception.
   • Employ the conceptual tools and insights of literary theoretical texts in reading and interpreting texts drawn from various literary genres, literary criticism, historical materials, and literary theory itself.
   • Present accurately the arguments of a literary critic or theorist, uncovering unarticulated assumptions to illuminate the context in which the argument is made.
   • Understand the implications of different interpretive approaches, considering the benefits and limitations of different strategies.
2. Argumentation. Students learn to:
   • Develop a line of questioning that leads to the construction of a logical, well-supported argument.
   • Evaluate their own arguments and those of others on the criteria of logical coherence, good use of evidence and comprehensiveness.
   • Respond to new evidence or new perspectives on the evidence by refining or revising their argument.
3. Oral and written expression. Students learn to:
   • Present complex information and ideas orally, both in a prepared presentation and spontaneously.
   • Participate in a discussion with multiple participants by asking questions, listening closely to others, building upon their contributions, and formulating productive and relevant responses.
   • Write formal expository prose that is clear, persuasive, and economical.
   • Revise their own writing to improve its clarity and effectiveness.
4. Research. Students learn to:
   • Formulate a productive research question that has a rigorous conceptual framework and makes good use of the available evidence.
   • Use databases, indices, and other tools to identify and locate relevant materials.
   • Assess the relevance and reliability of available materials.
   • Cite published work properly.