Resources for Students Interested in the Study of Comparative Literature

Our major supports students who want to engage in literatures that cross boundaries of media, geography, time and nationality, but also of languages and cultures. The study of Comparative Literature requires the development of critical skills for the analysis of literary and cultural texts and acknowledges the reality of living in an interconnected and global world in which the acquisition of knowledge in a second language and culture is a key element. Literary theory is one of the tools that students of Comparative Literature use as they develop their skills in the close reading and critique of literary and cultural objects.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory (ed. John Frow) offers 180 full-length essays that:

“Discuss the theoretical categories and formal structures; the institutions that support the production, dissemination, interpretation, and valuation of literary texts; the identities of the real and textual persons who interact in the study of texts; and the systematic methodologies of literary interpretation and understanding. Ranging from ancient criticism--Greek and Latin, Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Biblical--to contemporary issues, including digital humanities, ecocriticism, queer studies, and Indigenous traditions, the Encyclopedia offers the most comprehensive analysis currently available of literary theory in all its many dimensions.”

This excellent resource is available online and on the Reference shelves at Canaday library:

• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory

Bryn Mawr’s Comparative Literature co-Director Shiamin Kwa is the author of the chapter on “Surface” in the Encyclopedia.