The Literature Program is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of literature in its cultural, religious, historical, and geographic context.

Literature Program

The pedagogical imperatives of the Literature program concern helping our students become familiar with a range of literature that explores cultural differences. We treat literary texts not only as aesthetic objects but also as evolving cultural objects affected by intercultural exchange and appropriation. While no program of this type can promise coverage of all periods and all literatures, we believe it is important to bring students into contact with diverse aesthetics, traditions, and interpretive practices sufficient to challenge their thinking about difference and commonality. Through literature, we help our students develop a cosmopolitan understanding of the aesthetic, philosophical political, social, and historical relationships between cultures. In this way, they will be encouraged to recognize the shared as well as the distinctive psychological, intellectual, and spiritual themes among cultures. Students will learn about works in their cultural and historical contexts in such a way as to foster inquiry into human values.

The approach that divides literature into national literary traditions does only part of this work: nations are relatively recent phenomena, and the interpretive categories of those disciplines do not suffice for exploring the aesthetics (and the ideologies transmitted thereby) of other traditions-including those that pre-date or oppose nationalism and those that provide a counterparadigm to a national literature approach even within a contemporary nationalist setting. We seek to emphasize the complexity and heterogeneity of national cultures as well as the complexity of the relationships among cultures. We do not replicate either a national literature model or a traditional comparative literature model. Rather, our models are programs at prestigious institutions that are based on a broader understanding of the nature and function of language, literature, and the arts in culture.

Our objectives require that students must do significant work in a non-native literary tradition as well as in a nonWestern tradition. In many cases, that will mean that the student has to satisfy the prerequisites of fluency in a national language. But to avoid simply reinstituting a national literature approach, other types of courses are required, most notably the major's introductory sequence, courses in literary analysis and literary theory, and a capstone seminar that incorporate a broader understanding of literary study. Electives allow students to develop emphases in areas of interest.. We track courses in other departments and programs, so that we can inform our students about those that satisfy our electives criteria. Students will work with their advisors to develop the appropriate set of courses to meet their goals and their needs. When possible, we will cross-list courses with departments. Because the course offerings in the undergraduate curriculum change, and because individual students have different backgrounds, languages, and objectives, students will work closely with the program advisors and may petition to include relevant courses for the major.