The “Introduction to Comparative Literature” series (COLT 101, 102, 103) introduces students to the study of world culture. Each course emphasizes the richness and complexity of world culture, covering a broad array of works from classical Greece to the modern Caribbean, from Shakespeare to the Kenyan essayist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o. COLT 102 in particular focuses upon the social and political contexts of world literature, introducing students to some of the basic terms of cultural studies: that is, the study of literature as a socio-political institution. With an emphasis on questions of identity-formation, discussions will be anchored in such categories as class, race and gender, and will consider broad cultural questions of vernacularity (i.e. the distinction between “high” and “low” culture), dissent and censorship, identity formation, etc. COLT 101, 102 and 103 complement each other, and may be taken individually or out of sequence. COLT 102 satisfies both the University’s Arts and Letters requirement and the International Cultures multicultural requirement.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

• Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
• Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)
• Core Education Multicultural: Global Perspectives (GP)