Program Director: Dr. Ioanna Chatzidimitriou, Associate Professor of French
Advisory Board: Dr. Francesca Coppa, Dr. Tiffany Montoya, Dr. Daniel Leisawitz, and Dr. Mirna Trauger
Comparative Literature (or Comparative Literary Studies) is an established discipline in literary studies. Its defining characteristics are its comparative methodologies, its theoretical approach to literary study (psychoanalytic, eco-critical, post-colonial, post-humanist, feminist, queer, etc.), and its interdisciplinarity. Often, comparative literary studies require fluency in more than one language but that is not always the case. At Muhlenberg, we are lucky to have robust literary programs in both English and a number of other linguistic traditions (Spanish, French, Italian, Hebrew, etc.), which allows us to offer our multilingual students the possibility of exploring literary texts in their original language.
