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M.A. in Comparative Literature

Mission

The Mission of the Graduate Program in Comparative Literature is to teach, train, and conduct, research in literature and trans-cultural studies, in addition to translation, with special attention to Lebanon and the Middle East in general. The Program offers coursework in English, Arabic, Persian, and French, in response to the students’ needs and capacities. The aim is to explore the role of culture in a multiethnic globalizing world.

Educational Objectives

The purpose of the Graduation Program in Comparative Literature is to:

1. Offer students linguistic and cultural training in more than one cultural zone.
2. Offer students a highly individualized curriculum, through close cooperation with other disciplines in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
3. Allow students to acquire an exceptional degree of expertise in regional intercultural relations, and a broadened perspective on the variety, and complexity, of the Middle Eastern cultures, combined with advanced training in critical, and poststructuralist, theories.
4. Explore a range of literary, and cultural, theories, and demonstrate significant mastery of one or two.
5. Achieve broad intercultural competence in genre, period, and theme.
6. Receive advanced training in written, and oral, communication through working with experienced researchers.

Learning Outcomes

Graduate students in Comparative Literature will be able to:

1. Develop a high level of complexity, and specialization, in methodology, theory, periods, themes, and literary genres, that constitute the framework within which students can pursue their study and research.
2. Develop the skills to teach, train, and to conduct research in literature, and transcultural studies, with special attention to Lebanon and the Middle East in general.
3. Acquire an exceptional degree of expertise in regional intercultural relations.
4. Obtain advanced standing in secondary school teaching, work as literary translator, or work as a specialist in literature and culture, for the press, for international publishers, in diplomacy, and in international organizations.
5. Acquire the knowledge, and the skills, which qualify them to pursue their education in the field at a Ph.D. level.

Comparative literature is the critical study of texts in two or more languages. Practitioners most often describe their work as the interdisciplinary study of literature, and other cultural productions, across national, ethnic, and linguistic boundaries. Periods, genres, themes, movements, and cross-cultural influences are among the objects of study. Comparatists draw their methods from the literary tradition, as well as from other fields of the humanities and the sciences.

The Mission of the Program in Comparative Literature at LAU is to provide instruction, and to conduct research, in literature, cultural criticism, and translation, with special attention to Lebanon and the Middle East. The aim is to explore the role of culture in a multiethnic, globalizing world.

Advanced training is offered in three areas of study:

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

Graduates of the M.A. Program in Comparative Literature can pursue several career options:

• Enter a Ph.D. Program in literature or comparative studies.
• Obtain advanced standing in secondary school teaching
• Work as literary translators.
• Work as specialists in literature, and culture for the press, in publishing, in diplomacy, or in business

Graduate students in Comparative Literature complete 33 credit hours of coursework in three areas:

A. Eighteen credits of course courses:

Number	Course	Cr
CLT801	Methodologies of Comparative Literature	3
CLT803	Literary Theory I	3
CLT804	Literary Theory II	3
CLT820	Period	3
CLT830	Themes	3
CLT840	Genre	3

B. Nine credits of coursework in one of the following:

1. A national literature and culture
2. A non-literature cognate (graduate-level courses in a field of interest such as anthropology, film, history, music, philosophy, psychology, etc…).
3. Literary translation

C. A written comprehensive exam and six-credit Master’s thesis