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Explore USC’s Comparative Literature Department

  • What is Comparative Literature?
  • What Does USC COLT do?

What is Comparative Literature?

The discipline of comparative literature was originally based in the study of literary works across linguistic, national, and historical boundaries with the goal of taking up a comparative perspective on different literary traditions. This makes it an excellent choice for students with proficiency in one or more languages who wish to expand and hone their knowledge of literature in culture context. Over time the field has broadened to encompass the study of literary theory and cultural criticism globally and to incorporate the comparison of literature with other arts and media, including film, visual art, digital and new media, and performance. Comparative literature is a great field for students with interdisciplinary interests and/or with a focus on innovative, experimental, and radical cultural critique. It is also an excellent choice for students who wish to supplement or enhance work in history, anthropology, media studies, and/or gender and race studies (among many other fields).

Students in comparative literature are trained to ask broader and better questions about the many forms of cultural production surrounding them. And they know they have to look at cultures comparatively because they’ve learned that no one language culture has all the answers. As a discipline, comparative literature seeks out and encourages multicultural and hybrid cultural experiences. As a result of their comparative study of literature and the other arts, as well as different cultures, graduates with this degree tend to see the world differently. It becomes a larger place than it was before, more varied, less uniform, with many histories rather than just one.

What Does USC COLT do?

We prioritize working with each student in our program to help craft a trajectory and experience that are most meaningful for them. Our courses are small, and our faculty are passionate about working closely with students to help them explore their own interests in comparative contexts. For students who want to pursue more advanced research, we encourage them to work with faculty in the Comparative Literature Honors Program on an extended research project of their choice and/or to take graduate seminars. We also invite our majors and minors to seek our research opportunities with our faculty.

Our graduates pursue vibrant careers in diverse fields, including law, education, journalism and communications, writing and editing, media and entertainment, the travel industry, translation, medicine, and post-graduate study in the humanities (among others). Our most recent alumni have gone on hold Fulbright Fellowships, to attend Stanford University (Law), Harvard University (Comparative Literature), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Cambridge University (Literature), and to work for DC Comics, Entertainment Weekly, Creative Artists Agency, and Teach for America. Our students get extensive training in writing effectively, thinking critically, reading thoughtfully, and deepening and enriching their understanding of cultures around the world.

Comparative Literature is the home for everything you’re passionate about and more. It’s a rabbit hole of ideas that lead to endless doors holding the deeper meanings behind all of our favorite stories, and where they can go.

Mandie Zamora’23

Events

To get a better understanding of the Comparative Literature department, its best to look at events we present.

To view more click here.

Queer labor history and the interrupting family

A talk with Sam Solomon, University of Susses, UK:

This talk brings together two different stories about late twentieth century typesetting and print labor between roughly 1965 and 1995, a period during which typesetting was first computerized and then all but abandoned as part of the pre-print process. The talk is an experiment in juxtaposing the different narrative, poetic, and personal forms through which these histories are conveyed, to see how their gaps and overlaps can further illuminate the sexual and class politics of literary labor.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Taper Hall (THH) 309K

3501 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089

 

To RSVP click here.

Trans Photography and the Performance of AIDS in Michel Journiac

The USC Visual Studies Research Institute invites you to online event:  Trans Photography and the Performance of AIDS in Michel Journiac

Professor Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute of Art, London)

“Pink Triangles: Michel Journiac with Guy Hocquenghem and Lionel Soukaz”

 

Dr. Antoine Idier (Sciences Po, Saint-Germain-en-Laye)

“Michel Journiac, AIDS, and the Politics of Art”

 

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Literary Translation as Practice and Profession

Literary Translation as Practice and Profession: A Roundtable with Sarah Booker, Denise Kripper and Jeffrey Zuckerman, moderated by Katie Hammitt

What does literary translation look like from a professional perspective? How does one break into the field of literary translation? What considerations do translators of literature take when choosing texts, approaching editors and authors, and preparing for commercial audiences? This roundtable will engage with the practical side of literary translation, drawing on the experience of three translators.

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Autumn Beat Screening and Q&A

Autumn Beat, produced by Amazon Studios and co-produced by Indiana Productions is an exciting and unprecedented story about Black culture in Italy, and the role of music as a means of redemption and search for identity.

Running time: 103 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles.

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The Wretched of France book talk with Abdellali Hajjat (Exile and Resistance Lecture)

From October to December 1983, youths from the working-class suburbs of Lyon led the March for Equality and Against Racism, the first national demonstration of its type in France. As Abdellali Hajjat reveals, this historic protest symbolized for many the experience of the children of postcolonial immigrants, marching against racist crimes, for equality before the law and the police, and for basic rights such as the right to work and housing. Translated into English for the first time, The Wretched of France contemplates the protest’s lasting significance in France as well as its impact within the context of larger and comparable movements for civil rights, particularly in the United States.

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COLT Programs

Undergraduate Studies

Our undergraduate program is more broadly conceived than at many other universities. While we offer traditional comparative literature courses that cross the boundaries of national literatures and study literary periods, movements, and genres, our courses also allow students to explore literature in its interaction with philosophy, to discover the relation of literature to other arts and media, and to reflect on practices of translation as themselves modes of transcultural exchange and production.

Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture PhD Program

Inaugurated by USC Dornsife in 2011, the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture Doctoral Program is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary program that cultivates the common ground tying Comparative Literature, Comparative Media and Culture, French and Francophone Studies, and Spanish and Latin American Studies, while carrying out path-breaking research in each of these disciplines.

Translation Studies Graduate Certificate

Translation Studies is a discipline that considers the production and analysis of translation and interpretation. Housed in the Department of Comparative Literature, this certificate offers graduate students the opportunity to supplement their graduate degree with specialized training in the theory and practice of translation.

Contact Us

Department Faculty & Staff List

Department Chair

Julian Gutierrez-Albilla

(213) 740-1258

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Natania Meeker

(213) 740-3172

Director of Graduate Studies (CSLC)

Olivia C Harrison

(213) 740-0104