Graduate Degrees, Page 2

Graduate Degrees, Page 2
Comparative Literature
College of Letters Arts and Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature

Course Requirements

A minimum of 15 courses or 60 units. The courses are to be distributed as follows: (1) at least six courses in the student's major literary tradition, which is understood to be a national literature (e.g., Russian or Japanese); several literatures of one language (e.g., Francophone literatures of Europe, Africa, and the Americas; peninsular and Latin American literatures in Spanish); or a bilingual tradition like Classics (Greek and Latin); (2) at least two courses in a second literary tradition; (3) at least seven courses in comparative literature or comparative fields relating to the student's program, including COLT 501 and 502. No more than three of the required 15 courses may be in directed research (590 or 790). COLT 501 and 502 must be completed by the end of each student's second semester in the program.

Foreign Language Requirements

All students must successfully complete their required advanced course work (400-level or higher) in three languages, one of which may be English. This will normally be accomplished by completing all courses in the major and second literary traditions in the original languages, and by successfully completing at least one advanced course in a third literary tradition. In rare circumstances, an examination administered by the COLT program demonstrating a linguistic skill and literary knowledge equivalent to an advanced course (400-level or higher) may be substituted for the third language. Where Anglophone literature constitutes a student's major literary tradition, advanced course work in two other literary traditions is required without the option of examination in the third language. In some cases the COLT Graduate Studies Committee may require special preparation in languages essential to the student's program (e.g., Latin or Greek for specialization in the Renaissance).

Screening Procedure

To be permitted to work toward the Ph.D. in comparative literature, a student must pass the examination under Option 2 for the master's degree. Students entering the program with an M.A. from another institution must pass this examination at the end of their second semester in the program. The COLT Graduate Studies Subcommittee periodically reviews the progress of all students in the program and may recommend that a student not be allowed to continue if examinations, grades, or other forms of evaluation indicate inadequate performance.

Comparative Field Examination

The purpose of the comparative field exam is to demonstrate the breadth of the student's comparative expertise. Thus the principal texts under analysis in the comparative field must not belong to that major literary tradition on which the student was tested in the screening procedure; nor should they be in any way central to the thesis he or she proposes to write.

At the time of the screening procedure, the student will designate a three-member comparative field exam committee, normally chaired by that member of the COLT faculty with whom the student intends to write the thesis. This committee is responsible for helping the student prepare for the comparative field exam, as well as for assuring its integrity as a comparative exercise.

The centerpiece of the field exam is a 30-40 page paper with bibliography. Typically, this paper will grow out of work the student has done for one or more graduate seminars. It can be literary and/or theoretical in nature, but must draw principally on work in one or both of the student's secondary languages. The oral portion of the field exam involves discussion of the submitted paper and of the student's evolving research plans.

Guidance Committee

Upon successful completion of the comprehensive field exam, students will form a five-member guidance committee in accordance with Graduate School guidelines. The chair and two other members of this committee must be COLT faculty; at least one member must come from outside the COLT program. The committee will help the student form reading lists for the qualifying exam and write the dissertation prospectus. Its recommendations will be subject to the approval of the COLT Graduate Studies Committee.

Qualifying Examination

When all required courses or units, all language requirements and the Comparative Field Examination have been completed, the student must pass an examination on the area of his or her proposed dissertation topic. The examination will consist of a five-hour written examination, an oral examination on the written part and discussion of a written proposal for the dissertation which the student has submitted prior to the written examination. The proposal should follow the form prescribed by the Graduate Studies Subcommittee. Each student will prepare, in consultation with his or her guidance committee, a reading list on the area of the proposed topic.

Dissertation

During the oral part of the Qualifying Examination, the student will receive advice and instruction from the guidance committee on the proposal for the dissertation. Following successful completion of the Qualifying Examination, any necessary revisions must be made in consultation with the student's dissertation committee.

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