Comprehensive Requirement

All students majoring in Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture will be required in their senior year to complete a comprehensive project consisting of a senior thesis of approximately 25 pages and to present a 15-minute presentation based on the thesis to the CSLC faculty and students. In their senior year, each CSLC major will enroll in the senior seminar, CSLC 490. Students graduating in the fall of senior year must complete a final draft of the paper and give a short presentation before fall comps grades are due.

Comprehensive Projects will differ systematically between the Language Focuses and the Comparative Focus. The Language Focuses require students to make the original language of primary text(s) the principal object of scholarly analysis. The Comparative Focus, in contrast, requires students to synthesize scholarship on primary texts in two or more linguistic traditions in support of a novel thesis. Here, the student’s knowledge of some key words, grammatical structures, or syntax will inform the Comps project and facilitate understanding and evaluation of secondary literature and scholarship.