Comparative literature is the study of cultural expression across linguistic boundaries. At Brown, the Department of Comparative Literature is distinct in its conviction that literary research and instruction must be international in character, and its undergraduate and graduate programs are considered among the finest in the country. Undergraduate students study a generous range of literary works – from Western cultures, both ancient and modern, to Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic – to develop a critical understanding of how cultures differ from one another.
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature
In the spirit of Brown's Open Curriculum, a concentration in Comparative Literature affords great academic freedom.
The graduate program in Comparative Literature at Brown offers a vigorous and comprehensive exploration of literature and culture.
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The Open Graduate Education Program builds on the traditions of free inquiry and collaborative research at Brown by allowing select doctoral students to pursue a master’s degree in a secondary field. All doctoral students are invited to propose their own combination of studies, free of any disciplinary barrier.
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The Colie Prize is awarded annually to recognize the most outstanding honors theses in research and translation in Comparative Literature.
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Mariajosé Rodríguez-Pliego ‘23 Ph.D. completed her doctoral degree in Comparative Literature last summer, earning her degree in October of 2023. Her dissertation, Foundational Futures: Nationhood, Migration and Environment in the Literatures of Abiayala was selected for the Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award in the humanities.
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This prize is awarded in memory of Professor Albert Spaulding Cook, Ford Foundation Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Classics and English (1925-1998), whose rich and prolific record of scholarly and creative publications conferred on him a worldwide reputation for wide-ranging erudition and aesthetic acumen.
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Brown offers a number of awards and fellowships to deserving faculty to recognize their excellence in teaching and research.
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Reading Art in Literature: The Marvelous Case of “The Story of the Stone” is a literary study of the art objects lavishly deployed by Cao Xueqin (1710–1765?) in his beloved novel (better known as The Dream of the Red Chamber). These objects are intended as expedients to preserving the vanishing culture of his lifetime, while offering their symbolic and allegorical significance as guides to a path of enlightenment.
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The Cogut Collaborative Humanities Fellowship supports graduate students at any stage of their pursuit of the Doctoral Certificate in Collaborative Humanities.
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Brown University Library News
New Project with Michelle Clayton Selected for Brown University Digital Publications
The University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, together with the Digital Publications Faculty Advisory Committee, are pleased to announce the selection of the next scholarly work to be developed by Brown University Digital Publications.
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Jerusalem Quarterly
Palestine Writes and the Politics of Language
In October of 2023, Comparative Literature graduate student, Ahmad Abu Ahmad, published an article entitled Palestine Writes and the Politics of Language in the Winter 2023 issue of Jerusalem Quarterly, a publication by the Institute for Palestine Studies. Ahmad’s article was a review of the Palestine Writes festival that he attended in September 2023. He describes the festival as “a rich space to vocalize and vitalize the multitude of Palestinian experiences across historical Palestine and throughout the shatat, and to broaden our commitments as Palestinians in literature and beyond.”
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