Majors and Minors

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Faculty expert, Stephanie Bosch Santana.

MAJOR

PREPARATION FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

  • Two courses from the Comparative Literature 1, 2 or 4 series (with approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, a comparable lower division course in another department may be substituted for one of the courses)
        • *Department credit will not be given if students repeat lettered courses (e.g., 1A and 2AW, 1AW and 4AW, or 2AW and 4AW)
  • Completion of the College Writing I requirement
  • Literary proficiency in at least one language other than English, to be demonstrated by successful completion of coursework equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study , AP/IB exam scores awarding credit equivalent to two years of UCLA foreign language study, or a UCLA foreign language placement or proficiency exam

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature major is available here

TRANSFER STUDENTS:

Transfer applicants to the Comparative Literature major with 90 or more units must complete as many of the following introductory courses as possible prior to admission to UCLA: one English composition course, two literature survey courses, at least one of which is world literature, and the equivalent of at least one year of foreign language.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: 

  • Comparative Literature 100
  • Four upper division courses in Comparative Literature selected from M101 through 197
  • Three upper division literature courses using original language texts in the primary language area (such as Spanish, English, Chinese, Korean, Armenian, Classics, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Polish, or Greek)
  • Two upper division literature courses using original language texts in the secondary language area (students may petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies to take two upper division literature courses in translation if their primary literature area is in a language area other than English)

NOTE: Courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor to update the degree audit. The department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the major.

Download: Comparative Literature Major Worksheet
Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

MINOR

The Comparative Literature minor offers students interested in literature and the humanities the opportunity to gain insight into the critical problems and theories addressed by comparative literature and to apply that knowledge in literature and comparative literature courses.

PREPARATION FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

    • Completion of the College Writing I requirement
    • Overall GPA of 2.0 or better
    • Completion of at least one year (or equivalent) of a language other than English.

More information about satisfying the foreign language requirement for the Comparative Literature minor is available here

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: 

      • Four upper division comparative literature courses (one course from Comparative Literature 1A through 4DW may be substituted)
      • Two upper division courses in one literature (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish) in the original language
      • One upper division course in a second literature in the original language (one level six foreign language course may be substituted). If students complete two upper division courses in a language other than English, they may petition to take one upper division course taught in English translation to fulfill the third requirement

NOTE: Courses for the language area requirements must be applied to students’ Degree Audit Reports (DARS) or Degree Progress Reports (DPRs) manually. Please contact the Student Services Advisor regularly to update the degree audit. The Department maintains a list of pre-approved courses for the primary and secondary language area requirements that students can use to plan their study lists each quarter. Courses not listed there must be approved by the Student Services Advisor and/or Director of Undergraduate Studies in order for credit to apply toward the minor.

Download: Comparative Literature Minor Worksheet
Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

Please note that a minimum of 20 units applied toward the minor requirements must be in addition to units applied toward the major requirements or another minor.

Each minor course must be taken for a letter grade, and students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. Successful completion of the minor is indicated on the transcript and diploma.

Students interested in declaring the major or minor are strongly encouraged to contact the Student Services Advisor. Please see the Advising page for contact information.