The First Three Years

Course Requirements

• The number of required courses for the PhD in comparative literature is sixteen, of which only two may be reading courses; at least fourteen are to be letter-graded courses (i.e., not reading courses). Candidates are required to have at least as many 200-level courses as 100-level courses. Only in rare exceptions will courses below the 100-level be allowed to count toward the degree. Candidates may arrange to produce extra work, often in the form of longer papers, so as to receive from the department 200-level credit for courses that are listed at the 100-level in the Courses of Instruction. Such arrangements should be made early in the term when the course is being taken, because they must be approved by the course instructor and the director of graduate studies or the chair.
• Each candidate will normally be expected to balance coursework in the following manner: four courses in the Department of Literature and Comparative Literature; three in a first literature; two in a second literature; and two in a third literature. Other coursework may include relevant courses in any of the above literatures; in another literature; in philosophy, anthropology, religion, linguistics, art, economics, and so forth. Under special circumstances, the substitution of no more than one of the four LCL courses will be allowed, with the approval of the DGS or the Chair.
• Each degree candidate is expected to fulfill the 16-course requirement by including a significant dimension of comparative historical study. This dimension can be met by taking a minimum of three courses with a chronological emphasis or focus different from the candidate’s primary chronological focus. It is important that these three courses be distinctly different from the main period in the candidate’s program. Thus a candidate concentrating upon 20th century modernism would not be able to fulfill this requirement with three courses in the 19th century, nor would a candidate specializing in neo-classicism be able to claim satisfactory completion on the basis of three courses in the Renaissance.
• Many candidates declare a chronological focus. However, candidates may request a focus that covers a genre or field of study if it is followed throughout a very broad historical range, e.g., tragedy or lyric poetry in languages ancient and modern. In addition, all candidates will be welcome to identify a special interest in a particular literary form (such as drama, lyric, narrative, and the like) or a topic of substantial scope in literary theory (poetics, literature in its social context, the relation between literature and one of the other arts, and so forth). Whatever the decision, it must be communicated to the chair by April 1 of the first year.

Language Requirements

• Candidates should have knowledge of at least four languages variously related to their course of study and long-term interests. Hence one language may be studied for “instrumental” reasons and at least one must be studied because it stands in a useful “cross-cultural” or “diachronic” relationship to others.
• If English is presented as one of the four languages, it must have a strong historical component. This requirement may generally be satisfied by two half-courses in English or American Literature prior to 1800; a course in the history and structure of the English language may be one of these two courses. Medievalists or those whose coursework in English falls prior to 1800 will need to display coursework in later periods of English or American Literature.
• One of the four languages may be “instrumental”—a means for reading criticism, or an access to philological and/or historical issues, or a first step toward eventually studying the literature. The instrumental language is an option that may appeal to candidates who seek in three languages a command that may extend to include speaking, listening, and writing, and in one language reading knowledge only; other candidates may choose to develop full command of all four languages. Candidates may exercise this option by taking an advanced course or by passing a language examination in reading knowledge administered under the auspices of the department.
• One of the four languages must be either premodern (“diachronic”) or crosscultural.

The term “premodern” implies that this language stands in a historically foundational or, in certain cases, diachronic relationship to one of the other languages. Foundational languages would include classical Latin and Greek, biblical Hebrew, classical Arabic and Chinese, and Sanskrit. Normally, this language is not simply the “Old” form of a modern language that is studied in Old, Middle or Medieval, and Modern forms. In the event of uncertainty, candidates and/or their advisors should consult the curriculum committee. The term “cross-cultural” implies that this language is from a different linguistico-cultural group than the others. Usually a candidate working primarily on European languages and literatures, and choosing not to study a premodern language, would need to study a language such as Chinese or Arabaic to meet this requirement. Normally, English will not count as a crosscultural language.

• After appropriate consultation with the chair and/or director of graduate studies (DGS), candidates will draw up a list of four or more proposed languages. The list will be submitted to the chair for consideration by the department no later than October 1 of the first year and voted upon no later than November 1. (The list of proposed languages may be resubmitted at a later date so long as they meet the guidelines.)
• Language requirements must be finished by the end of the third year (of course, candidates who want to take an AM after the second year must complete language requirements for that degree before that degree can be awarded).

Common Essay

• Candidates must take a written take-home Common Essay examination by the end of the second year. Candidates will be asked to answer one of six general/theoretical questions. As the instructions for this examination will indicate, candidates will be expected to write from a comparative perspective and not respond solely on the basis of one literary tradition.

Grades

• Candidates are required, in a given year, to receive more As than Bs and no grade lower than B-. Candidates are not permitted to take an Incomplete in the Proseminar nor may they take more than one Incomplete a term. Any Incomplete must be completed before the end of the term that follows the one in which they took the Incomplete.

Master of Arts (AM)

• To obtain this degree the candidate must complete eight half-courses. One of these half-courses must be the Proseminar, another one must be in comparative literature, and the remaining six must include three in the first literature and two in the second literature. No more than one of the eight half-courses may be a reading course. Candidates are required to have at least as many 200-level as 100-level courses, and only in rare exceptions will courses below the 100-level be allowed to count toward the degree. The candidate must demonstrate proficiency in three languages, one of which may be English. One of the languages must be premodern or cross-cultural, as described in the requirements for the PhD.

Advising

• All incoming students (G1) are advised by the Director of Graduate Studies. At the end the first year, every G1 student is assigned a faculty advisor, who may function for only one more year or else continue as the student’s academic advisor in G3 and beyond (by mutual agreement). During the G2 year, every student will meet with his or her faculty advisor on a regular basis, especially at the beginning of each term; the advisor will sign off on courses, check up on Incompletes, and help the student prepare for the Common Exam and Reading Check. The faculty advisor may be one of the student’s examiners for the Reading Check, though not necessarily.
• By April of G3, every student will constitute a dissertation committee (aka prospectus committee), consisting of a “principal dissertation advisor” (PDA) and two other committee members (Readers). At least one of the three must be a member of the Comparative Literature faculty (more likely, two or even all three will be members). The “principal dissertation advisor” can be the same as the student’s faculty advisor (see above), but will often not be the same; if the PDA is a member of Comparative Literature, then he or she also acts as the student’s departmental academic advisor; if the PDA is not a member of Comparative Literature, then the student will have a different departmental academic advisor, most likely another member of the dissertation committee. The departmental academic advisor (who may be the PDA, but not necessarily, as per above) will meet with the student at least twice a year, to check up on academic progress. In addition, the department as a whole will review the student’s progress as part of its annual review of student progress every spring.

The Third Year

• The third-year requirements in the PhD program in comparative literature will comprise two parts, a written Reading Check and a Prospectus Conference.
• The Committee: Ideally, the three examiners for the Reading Check will also serve as the three faculty participants in the Prospectus Conference—but this is a recommendation rather than a requirement. Ordinarily, the three faculty participants in the Prospectus Conference will be three readers of the dissertation.
• The Reading Check: The Reading Check will test students in their general knowledge of their literatures and will be a set of written examinations. Students are expected to assemble an examination committee with examiners in their three different literatures no later than the last day of the spring term in the candidate’s second year. The chair of this examination committee must be both an examiner and a member of the department. For the first Literature Reading Check, the student will need to demonstrate range, both chronologically and generically. The second and third Reading Checks (on the student’s second and third literatures) will concentrate on the focus (chronological, genre, or special field of study) that the student has declared. The Reading Checks will focus upon lists tailored by the individual student, for which approval must be granted by the student’s examiners and advisor. These approved lists are due to the department along with a written agreement between student and examiner about the format for the examination by the last day of reading period in their second year. The entire class of third-year students will take the Reading Check examinations on the same day.
• Prospectus Conference: The conference is a meeting between the student and three faculty members. The conference will be a discussion of a fairly broad range of reading undertaken by the student in preparation for work on the dissertation. The conference will include a detailed discussion of the dissertation prospectus itself, with the aim of ensuring that the student is well prepared to move forward with the project and has developed both a viable conceptual structure and an appropriate outline of the chapters that will comprise the dissertation.
• Acceptance of the Prospectus: After the examination the prospectus, revised if necessary, will be circulated to all department members. At a department meeting convened by the chair it will be discussed and voted on. Where appropriate, the first reader will communicate any further suggestions for changing the prospectus and the bibliography directly to the candidate.

Submission of the Dissertation

• A full draft of the dissertation must be submitted to every member of the dissertation committee at least 4 weeks prior to the GSAS Registrar’s deadline for submitting dissertations. This deadline will allow committee members to make final suggestions before the manuscript is printed in its formal version. A date will then be set three months before the deadline for degree and all members of the committee should meet together at that time with the student to offer substantive recommendations for revision. The department asks that the dissertation conference take place in May for a November degree, in October for a March degree, and in February for a June degree.

The PhD in Comparative Literature with a Special Program in the Study of Oral Tradition and Literature

• The requirements for this special program are essentially the same as those listed above, except that at least one of the literatures must constitute (or at least include) a substantial corpus that is independent of written transmission and that derives from collections of performance recorded under strictly supervised conditions of fieldwork. A major resource for such purposes is the Milman Parry Collection at Harvard. Students in this program are overseen by the department’s Committee on the Study of Oral Tradition and Literature.

Please see the description of a secondary field in Comparative Literature on page 259.