Department of Comparative Literature

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Graduate Program

Program Description

Combining an apprenticeship in rigorous, traditional scholarship with exposure to the most advanced work in literary and cultural theory, the program in comparative literature at Chicago prepares students to compete successfully for academic careers in both national literature departments and programs that stress comparative or interdisciplinary study. All students take a two-quarter sequence in their M.A. year that provides a solid grounding in literary criticism and theory and poses some of the central challenges facing literary scholars today. Students design the remainder of their program to serve their own interests, either studying several national literatures (with primary emphasis on one) or exploring the relationship between literature and another discipline or art. Working closely not only with the faculty in comparative literature but also with other professors from the department of the University that best complements their interests, students develop individualized research topics that may range from the sociology of paraliterature to the hermeneutics of divination, from crime fiction in English and Chinese to comparisons between Sanskrit and Greek epic.

The University of Chicago is famous for the vibrancy and intensity of its interdisciplinary studies, and Comparative Literature students routinely work with faculty throughout the University. The University is also renowned for treating its graduate students as co-participants in the humanistic enterprise. Through a unique system of some forty interdisciplinary workshops offered annually, students and faculty together focus on topics of current interest, invite speakers from outside the university and share their own work in progress. Recent workshops of particular interest to students of comparative literature have dealt with poetics, American and European avant-gardes, empire, Renaissance literary studies after the New Historicism, rethinking East Asia, the history of the human sciences, ancient and modern rhetoric and poetics, and psychoanalysis.

Students find many opportunities for scholarly engagement in lectures, conferences, workshops, and other activities fostered by the University's many research centers and institutes. These include the Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and South Asia Language and Area Center. Interdisciplinary centers include the Center for Gender Studies, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, Film Studies Center, and Poetry and Poetics.

Advanced graduate students have the opportunity to apply for fellowships both in the Division of the Humanities and at the Franke Institute of the Humanities, which promotes individual and collaborative research at the University while also cosponsoring conferences on a broad range of topics. Advanced comparative literature students also have opportunities to teach in Comparative Literature and appropriate national literature departments.

We are proud of our placement record. Our Ph.D.'s hold tenured or tenure-track positions in a variety of literature departments at many colleges and universities both in the United States and abroad, including Amherst College, Brown University, the University of Maryland, Reed College, and the University of Texas. Recent Ph.D.'s have earned positions at such institutions as Duke University, Harvard University, the University of Memphis, the University of Missouri, and the University of Wisconsin. Please see our listing of Alums in the Graduate Student section of the website for further details.

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Admission and Degree Requirements

To gain admission to the Department of Comparative Literature, a student must have a B.A. or its equivalent, strong preparation in one foreign language and adequate preparation in at least one other foreign language, a strong background in literature or a relevant humanistic discipline, and an overall record of marked distinction. In view of our M.A. language requirements, applicants from Asia are strongly advised to demonstrate proficiency in one European language in addition to English. Students intending to apply should take the Graduate Record Examination.

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Ph.D. Program Requirements

The first year of the Ph.D. program consists of eight graduate level courses, all of which must be taken for a letter grade. The two-quarter sequence Seminar: Introduction to Comparative Literature 30100 and 30200 is required; the remaining six quarter courses are normally divided among two literatures, although a student may, with department permission, place greater emphasis on one literature or on some special interest. Students are expected to take six of their eight courses in the first two quarters of the program. In order to obtain their MA degree, students must also demonstrate competence (high proficiency in a graduate literature course or high pass in a University examination) in two foreign languages, one of which must be either French or German.

Students will be eligible for the M.A. degree upon successful completion of the first-year requirements. Near the end of the first year, the department will review students' records to assess whether they have made satisfactory progress and to provide guidance regarding their future course of graduate study.

Students are required to take eight graduate level courses in their second and third years of Ph.D. study, of which at least six must be completed in their second year. Students are also required to write a minimum of two substantial papers the second year, and one substantial paper the third year. Copies of these papers must be submitted to the graduate chair.

In their second and third years, students may take no more than one of the required courses per year for a Pass/Fail grade.

Students who enter the program with an M.A.degree from another university that has been judged suitable preparation for Comparative Literature study at the University of Chicago will enter the program as second-year students except that they will be required to take Comparative Literature 30100 and 30200. Near the end of their first year in our program, the department will review these students' records to assess whether they have made satisfactory progress and to provide guidance regarding their future course of graduate study.

The Two Tracks. All Ph.D. students choose, after consultation with an adviser and with the approval of the faculty, either track I or track II. Track I "National Literatures" is a program of studies involving major focus upon one national literature (the major) with a secondary focus upon a second national literature, usually in a specified historical period or genre (the minor). Track II "Literature and other Disciplines" is a program of studies in the relationship of literature and some other discipline such as philosophy, sociology, art, or psychology.

Track I students are normally expected to take at least 3 graduate courses in their major national literature. Track II students are normally expected to take at least 3 graduate courses in the department of the discipline that they choose other than literature. Students must petition the Chair for any exceptions to these requirements. Students should consult with their advisors to ensure that they take courses appropriate for their chosen fields of specialization.

No later than the third week of the fall quarter, each second-year student in the Ph.D. program will be asked to submit a carefully written declaration of approximately 2 pages specifying which track they want to pursue and how they plan to fulfill the requirements of that track. The track declaration should describe the student's general interests and program of study, provide examples of courses the student wishes to take, and note faculty with whom the student plans to work. The track declaration must be approved by the faculty as a whole, who will give the student suggestions regarding the proposed course of study.

Before the student is recommended for admission to candidacy for the doctor's degree he or she must pass satisfactorily an oral examination which will be based on one of the following two options:

Track I requires "The National Literature Oral." This is a two-hour examination based on no fewer than 60 titles in the major literature and no fewer than 30 titles in the minor literature. The list for the major literature will address all periods and genres. The list for minor literature will treat major texts of the approved period or genre. The exam will consist of (5-10 minutes) presentations on 3 topics related to the lists, each followed by questions from the examining faculty. In consultation with the examiners, the student may either prepare 2 topics related to the major literature list and 1 topic related to the minor literature list or prepare 3 topics that address the works on both lists.

Track II requires "The Field Oral." This is a two-hour oral examination on a representative list of approximately 70-90 titles in a given comparative field, such as literature and philosophy, literature and anthropology, literature and art, literature and film, literature and history, literature and linguistics, literature and music, literature and psychology, literature and sociology, literature and religion, literature and science. Texts chosen for this exam are to be distributed evenly between the two disciplines. The exam will consist of brief (5-10 minutes) presentations on 3 topics related to the lists, each followed by questions from the examining faculty.

For admission to candidacy the same language requirements hold for BOTH tracks. These are as follows: either high proficiency in one language (=normally one graduate literature course) + two University reading exams in two additional languages (with a high pass on both) OR two high proficiency (graduate literature courses) in two languages. In both tracks one of those languages must be either French or German. All graduate students who wish to fulfill the language requirement through graduate course work must pick up a form in the departmental office to be filled out by the instructor after the course work has been completed. The form will evaluate the student's general knowledge of the language with almost exclusive emphasis on reading.

After passing their oral exams, students will begin working on a dissertation proposal under the guidance of their dissertation committee, which should consist of at least two faculty members, of which at least one should be a Comparative Literature faculty member.

A dissertation proposal is necessarily provisional in its claims; it is fully expected that students will change aspects of their argument as they continue to do their dissertation research, thinking, and writing. Nevertheless, formulating a coherent and compelling dissertation proposal is a vital step toward successfully completing the dissertation in a timely fashion. A dissertation proposal should demonstrate that the student (a) has moved from consideration of a topic to the advancement of a significant and original argument about that topic; (b) has sufficient understanding of the relevant scholarship and of his or her chosen methodology, and (c) has formulated plausible organizing principles for the dissertation as a whole.

To these ends, a dissertation proposal of approximately 12-20 pages or 3000-5000 words (excluding bibliography) should include the following:

There are various ways of organizing a dissertation proposal effectively, but the outline of the dissertation's chapter organization and contents normally appears as the final section before the bibliography. These are very general guidelines, and students should consult their dissertation committee members regarding the committee members' specific expectations (e.g., regarding the optimum length of the proposal) as they work on their dissertation proposal.

Before entering candidacy students will be asked to present and discuss their dissertation proposals at a proposal hearing attended by their dissertation committee and other interested faculty. After entering candidacy students will participate in a colloquium, normally in the fifth quarter after their admission to candidacy in which they will discuss with their dissertation committee the current state of the dissertation and outline their plans and schedule for further progress. Students are strongly urged to join appropriate workshops and present dissertation chapters on a regular basis to such workshops. After satisfying the above requirements, the candidate is expected to pursue independent research under the direction of a member of the faculty culminating in the writing of a doctoral dissertation. The candidate must conclude his or her studies by defending successfully this dissertation in an oral final examination.

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