As a CSLC major, you will study how different literatures and languages, in combination with various other forms of cultural expression (music, art, philosophy, the sciences), structure a given culture鈥檚 experience of the world鈥攁s well as how they shape our own.
As a major and department almost entirely unique to Occidental, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture allows you to investigate the ways in which literature uses all the devices and resources of a given language not simply to 鈥渆ntertain鈥, but more fundamentally, to open its readers and listeners up to the manifold possibilities of their world鈥攖o make (and remake) the horizons of intelligibility within which the speakers of a common language ordinarily dwell. To adapt the words of Henry David Thoreau, to study in CSLC is nothing less than to explore how the shape of our words can 鈥渁ffect the quality of the day鈥, how they 鈥渃arve and paint the very atmosphere and medium鈥 in we which move, live, think, and breathe.
Literature and language, of course, do not operate in isolation from a myriad of other aspects (intellectual, physical, emotional) of a culture. CSLC thus invites its students to develop, in consultation with department faculty, a collaboratively designed and fully interdisciplinary major that engages at least one specific literature and language, and one specialized external discipline, of the student鈥檚 own choosing. You might elect, for example, to study German literature in relation to music or painting, Ancient Greek literature in relation to biology or economics, Chinese prose and poetry in relation to film; alternatively, students might wish to compare the literary and cultural forms of different language groups鈥擱oman epic in relation to Spanish or Russian novel, or Persian love lyric in relation to Japanese song.
The department offers courses in subjects such as German, Russian, Arabic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Persian and Nahuatl (Aztec). With the permission of their home department, students may also petition to study French and Spanish as part of their CSLC major.
As an interdisciplinary major that seeks to articulate the connection between all major forms of human cultural expression鈥攍iterature, language, art, science, philosophy鈥擟SLC provides an excellent preparation for all manner of graduate studies, and has successfully prepared students for careers in fields as diverse as education and computer gaming, law and medicine, business administration and the creative arts.
翱肠肠颈诲别苍迟补濒鈥檚 major allows you to combine the study of either two foreign languages or a language and linguistics.