Comparative Literature, B.A.

Learning Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

The following goals and learning outcomes have been established for students pursuing a degree in Comparative Literature:

Read critically

• Read a text in any of several genres on a number of levels, including literal comprehension, aesthetic responsiveness, informed awareness of the traditions and the varied critical perspectives within which it may be most productively read, and rhetorical and logical analysis of its argument and/or structure

Write effectively

• Write about various kinds of texts so as to articulate the dimensions of the work as described above
• Demonstrate an awareness of audience, purpose, and various rhetorical forms, as well as a high level of control of the conventions of standard written English

Research

• Demonstrate the ability to find in textbooks and research materials — paper and electronic — the kinds of information relevant to a given problem or issue, literary or otherwise, and to integrate that information into one’s own written work to support one’s argument while giving appropriate credit to the source of the information

Knowledge of major literary works and traditions

• Have a working knowledge of the major writers, periods and genres of the literatures the Comparative Literature major has chosen to work in — one of which is English and/or American literature — and to be able to place important works and genres in their historical context

Knowledge of noncanonical literary works

• Have a working knowledge of some important works in non-western, ethnic and women’s literatures that illustrate the diversity of literary studies and the interconnectedness of literary traditions

Structure of the English language

• Have a working knowledge of the structure of the English language and with theories of second language acquisition

Reading and writing competence in a foreign language

• Read works in their original language, and translate works from that language into standard written English
• Have a working knowledge of the structure of the language which the student has chosen as his/her specialty
• Have a working knowledge of stylistic and rhetorical conventions of the literature of the foreign language the student has chosen to study