Comparative Literature Lebanese American University (LAU)

Overview

Periods, genres, themes, movements and cross-cultural influences are among the objects of study. Students draw their methods from the literary tradition as well as from other fields of arts and sciences in order to study the nuanced particulars of the human experience from the cosmic perspective of texts and other modes of expression.  

Key Facts 

• Literature and other cultural productions: Students will achieve broad competence in genre, period and theme within an intercultural configuration.
• Theoretical frameworks: Students will explore a range of literary and cultural theories, and demonstrate significant mastery of at least one.
• Research methods and written and oral expression: Students will work with experienced researchers in a variety of media and receive advanced practice in written and oral communication.

What Will I Learn?

• Discuss, interpret and critique the operative principles and methodological pillars of the discipline: theme, genre, literary period and interdisciplinary studies.
• Apply these principles to specific examples from each of the methodological pillars, with emphasis on material that is relevant to the larger region of the Middle East.
• Identify, apply, and interpret major schools of literary and cultural theory from classical antiquity through the present.
• Demonstrate reading competence in at least two of the languages of the program: English, Arabic, Persian, French and Armenian.

• Deliver efficient class presentations and produce individual research papers as well as a defensible master’s thesis of substantial length, combining original thought and interpretation of literary and cultural products with demonstrable research skills.