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Contact Information
(541) 346-3986
(541) 346-3240 fax

http://complit.uoregon.edu

Undergraduate degrees: B.A.
Undergraduate Minor

Connecting the world of literature

Self-reflective, engaged, curious, and dedicated are some of the words used to describe Comparative Literature (COLT) students at the UO. The COLT program, with its broad base of study and interdisciplinary nature, is a match for these students because comparative literature is largely about asking why and searching to compare seemingly different things.

As Department Head Lisa Freinkel says, "Comparative literature ends up being a kind of switchboard for different analyses of culture." Through the lens of COLT, students can study anything. "Whether it's a film, a TV show, Japanese manga, or Madame Bovary by Flaubert," says Lisa, "you are seeing the ways in which all of those pieces can be interpreted critically."

In 2005–2006, the department's COLT Reading Project advanced this notion by bringing the work of Art Spiegelman to the UO. The cartoonist's book "In the Shadow of No Towers" was the subject of many interrelated lectures about 9/11, war, race, gender, and even comic books.

The program's horizon is defined only by the questions being asked: What is literature? Why do societies invest more value in some works than in others? How can we read the literature of the past with both historical tact and attention to the issues we care about today? How does literature intersect with history, politics, science, and other areas of knowledge? "We like to stress the idea," says Lisa, "that when you start to break down the barriers between national literatures, that you can break down other boundaries as well and start to think about literature in really broad terms."

Majors in COLT have the flexibility to create a learning experience based on their interests and skills, a key component of which is students’ interest in or knowledge of a second language. Upon declaring a COLT major, students choose two core areas of focus, a primary national literature and a secondary national literature (based on their second language). Majors then read texts in the original language of that culture or country and take COLT classes, which help bring it all together.

Lisa says the "typical COLT student is someone who loves language and loves thinking about how different things in life can be understood almost as if they were a language. In essence, what defines comparative literature really is more the way we read."