Chair:
Program Coordinator:

The Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory is a center for the study of literature through various disciplinary and critical perspectives, and the study of cultural history through the production of representations. The Program enables students to engage rigorously with critical theory as both reflection on interpretive method and tool of critique. It draws its graduate faculty from many disciplines: the languages and literary histories of Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia; history; art history; religion; anthropology; folklore; political science; sociology; communications. We provide a structured and challenging program in which graduate students can combine the careful study of a particular literary tradition with interests in other languages and disciplinary approaches. The broad field interests that our students bring to their projects include the history of philosophy, film and media studies, technology and the history of science, and area studies, such as the Mediterranean world. Our students work across all historical periods, from antiquity and the Middle Ages to the postmodern, and across diverse language fields.

Comparative Literature at Penn is a dynamic and congenial intellectual community that brings members together through common, core interests. Our signature event is the public lecture series Theorizing in Particular, which is organized by the graduate students. Our students and faculty are also active participants in the many interdisciplinary lecture and seminar series at Penn, including the Medieval-Renaissance Seminar, the History of Material Texts Seminar, the Humanities Forum, the Latitudes Seminar, the Marxist Reading Group, and the Ethno-History Workshop.

, Program Coordinator
720 Williams Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
phone: 215-898-6836
fax: 215-573-9451