Comparative Literature

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

The Comparative Literature Department offers the BA and minor in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural literary studies, including the study of various literary genres, periods and movements; literary theory; and interdisciplinary approaches to literature. The literatures and cultures represented in the department include: Western (European and American) and East Asian.

Taper Hall of Humanities 161
(213) 740-0102
FAX: (213) 740-8058
Email: complit@dornsife.usc.edu
dornsife.usc.edu/colt
Chair: John Rowe, PhD

Faculty

Marion Frances Chevalier Professor of French and Professor of French and Italian and Comparative Literature: Peggy Kamuf, PhD* (French and Italian)

Florence R. Scott Professor of English and Professor of English and Comparative Literature: Tania Modleski, PhD (English)

USC Associates Chair in Humanities and Professor of English and American Studies & Ethnicity: John Rowe, PhD (English)

Professors: Joseph Boone, PhD (English); Dominic C.N. Cheung, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Vincent Farenga, PhD* (Classics); Erin Graff Zivin, PhD (Spanish and Portuguese); Jack Halberstam, PhD (American Studies & Ethnicity); David E. James, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Akira Mizuta Lippit, PhD (Critical Studies); Margaret Rosenthal, PhD (Italian); Hilary M. Schor, PhD (English); David St. John, MFA (English); William G. Thalmann, PhD* (Classics); Daniel Tiffany, PhD (English); Alexander Zholkovsky, PhD (Slavic Languages and Literatures)

Associate Professors: Julian Albilla, PhD (Spanish and Portuguese); David Bialock, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Roberto Ignacio Díaz, PhD* (Spanish and Portuguese); Heather James, PhD (English); Janet Johnson, PhD (Music); Natania Meeker, PhD (French and Italian); Panivong Norindr, PhD (French and Italian); Antonia Szabari, PhD (French and Italian)

Assistant Professors: Neetu Khanna, PhD; Veli N. Yashin, PhD

Associate Professors (Teaching): Michael du Plessis, PhD; Jason Webb, PhD

Emeritus Professors: Gloria Orenstein, PhD; Albert Sonnenfeld, PhD* (French and Italian)

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

Graduate Degrees

The MA and PhD in comparative literature are offered through the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture program, as described here .

Programs

Bachelor’s Degree

• •  Comparative Literature (BA)

Minor

• •  Comparative Literature Minor

Courses

Comparative Literature

• •  COLT 101gp Masterpieces and Masterminds: Literature and Thought
• •  COLT 102g On Location: The Place of Literature in Global Cultures
• •  COLT 250g Cultures of Latin America
• •  COLT 251g Modern Literature and Thought of the West Since 1800
• •  COLT 264gp Asian Aesthetic and Literary Traditions
• •  COLT 302 Introduction to Literary Theory
• •  COLT 303 Globalization: Culture, Change, Resistance
• •  COLT 311 Epic
• •  COLT 312 Heroes, Myths and Legends in Literature and the Arts
• •  COLT 324 Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
• •  COLT 335 Decadence and Modernity
• •  COLT 345 Realist Fiction
• •  COLT 346 Fictions of the First Person
• •  COLT 348 Modernist Fiction
• •  COLT 351 Modern and Contemporary Drama
• •  COLT 354 Revolutions in Theater
• •  COLT 357 The Avant-Garde
• •  COLT 365 Literature and Popular Culture
• •  COLT 370 Leaders and Communities: Classical Models
• •  COLT 373 Literature and Film
• •  COLT 374gm Women Writers in Europe and America
• •  COLT 375 Latin American Cultural and Literary Theory
• •  COLT 377 Literature, Theory, Gender
• •  COLT 379 Nationalism and Postcolonialism in Southeast Asian Cinema
• •  COLT 381 Psychoanalysis and the Arts
• •  COLT 382gw Zen and Taoism in Asian Literature
• •  COLT 385 Literature and Justice
• •  COLT 390 Special Problems
• •  COLT 391 Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism
• •  COLT 420 The Fantastic
• •  COLT 426 Utopias
• •  COLT 435 Poetry and Poetics of the Everyday
• •  COLT 445 Europe and the Writing of Others
• •  COLT 448 Multilingual Encounters
• •  COLT 449g Dante
• •  COLT 451 Opera and Cultural Theory
• •  COLT 452 Representation and Cognition in Photography
• •  COLT 453 Bildungsroman in Modern East Asia
• •  COLT 454 Aesthetic Philosophy and Theory
• •  COLT 460 Love, Self and Gender in Japanese Literature
• •  COLT 462 Soundtracks of Our Lives
• •  COLT 470 Literature and Media in Latin America
• •  COLT 471 Literature, Theory, History
• •  COLT 472 Los Angeles Crime Fiction
• •  COLT 474 Desire, Literature, Technology
• •  COLT 475 Politics and the Novel
• •  COLT 476 Narrative and the Law
• •  COLT 478 Family in Theory and Literature
• •  COLT 480 Dada and Surrealism
• •  COLT 485 The Shoah (Holocaust) in Literature and the Arts
• •  COLT 486 Deconstructive Thought
• •  COLT 487 Critical Image
• •  COLT 490x Directed Research
• •  COLT 495 Senior Honors Thesis
• •  COLT 499 Special Topics
• •  COLT 525 Studies in Literary and Cultural History
• •  COLT 545 Studies in Literature and the Other Arts
• •  COLT 555 Studies in Literatures of the Americas
• •  COLT 565 Studies in Literatures of Asia
• •  COLT 575 Studies in Literature and Ethnicity
• •  COLT 585 Studies in Literature and Gender
• •  COLT 593 Practicum in Teaching the Liberal Arts
• •  COLT 602 Seminar in Literary Theory
• •  COLT 620 Seminar in Literature, Culture, and Thought