Comparative & World Literature
Founded in 1967, the Program in Comparative and World Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has been at the forefront of interdisciplinary teaching and research in the humanities, offering courses that work across different national languages and literary traditions, as well as those that combine the study of literature with other disciplines, including film and visual culture, science and medicine, economics and law. Our program was one of the first to offer and emphasize non-Western and cross-cultural perspectives, and World Literature – from Asia and Africa, to Europe and the Americas – is an area where we continue to excel today.
Recent News
Interview with Prof. Calderwood in Cordopolis
The Spanish newspaper Cordopolis published a long interview with Prof. Eric Calderwood about the...
Faculty receive Public Voices Fellowship
New program at Illinois helps professors amplify their ideas to a wider audience.
New Book from Alumni Matthias Stephan
Defining Literary Postmodernism for the Twenty-First Century, by Complit alumni Matthias Stephan '15, has been published by...
Prof. Mehta elected for 2019-20 Public Voices Fellowship
Please join me once more in congratulating Prof. Mehta on her newest...
Upcoming Events
Cripping TJ: Survivors as Organizers, Vicarious Trauma and Disability Justice in Transformative Justice
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
Ecocriticism| Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series
Metropolization and Its Territorial Consequences in Brazil
Talk: Political Moses: John J. Bird, the University, and African-American Politics in Illinois 1865–1900
Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St, Urbana
Political Moses: John J. Bird, the University, and African-American Politics in Illinois 1865– 1900
Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St, Urbana
Featured Courses
Global Consciousness and Lit
CWL 114
Exploration of the cultural and historical roots of globalization and the development of global consciousness from...
Early Masterpieces of Western Culture
CWL 241
Comparative study of major works of literature, philosophy and culture in the Western tradition from the ancient...
Cross-Cultural Thematics
CWL 151
Credit: 3 hours.
Explores a combination of western and non-western literature through the focus on a...
