Comparative Literature Brochure

About the department Comparative Literature

Comparative Literature at UCI trains students in the cultural literacy needed to be citizens of a globalized world. It reaches beyond any single national culture to consider relations between various literatures as well as cultural phenomena such as films, comics, urban space, monuments and politics. Comparative Literature students learn about the historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts of texts as they are produced and received across national boundaries and in response to the dynamics of global movements and crises.

About our courses The Department of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine invites students to explore the Comparative Literature program by taking a course through Cross Enrollment.

This is a great opportunity for students to enroll in UCI courses that may count towards a degree without formal admission to the university.

Eligible California Community College students can enroll in UCI courses and pay reduced fees through Cross Enrollment (Senate Bill 1914). Enrollment requires permission of the course instructor and/or department and is contingent on space being available after all matriculated UCI students have been enrolled. For more information on how to enroll through UCI’s Division of Continuing Education, see: https://ce.uci.edu/student-resources/concurrent-enrollment/cross-enrollment.

Courses available for Winter and Spring 2025. See below for a list of courses and select course descriptions. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Adriana Johnson (adriana.johnson@uci.edu) and Nicki Giles (nagiles@uci.edu). And for more information, please visit our website.

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“By definition, Comparative Literature is the study of literature across languages, genres, and forms. As a discipline, it'll inspire you to constantly question the boundary of literature.”

Andy Hoang Comparative Literature/Bio Sci

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Comparative Literature Courses Winter 2025 CL 10 Memoir as Resistance (Chahinian) examines how the literary form of self-writing challenges ideas of unified identity that online personas perpetuate. The course also explores how this popular genre celebrates notions of community, multiple belonging and hybrid identities.

CL 121 Narrative, Pattern, Text (Dimenberg) Through readings in literary theory and close analyses of novels and films this class introduces the fundamental structures of narrative operative in all storytelling and is likely to be helpful to students interested in creative expression.

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Winter 2025 courses also include: CL 9: Monsters and Monstrosity (Alfailakawi) CL 60B: Reading with Theory (Amiran) CL 102W: Creative Translation (Wolpe) CL 105: Environmental Racism (Carroll)

Spring 2025 CL 9 Immigration (Gamber) Reading literature by Asian American, Latino, Native American, and Arab American immigrant authors.

CL 10 Humanoids: The Adventures of a Digital Reader (Chahinian) traces the development of literature, visual arts, and popular culture in the digital world to consider our changing reading practices, the politics of digital participation across social media platforms, the performance of online identities, and new challenges to our understanding of reality.

CL 150 Women Writing the City (Dimenberg) The focus of this course is on novels in translation by and about women that provide insights into the varied and changing dimensions of female experience in different cultures and time periods.

Spring 2025 courses also include: CL 60C: Cultural Studies (Johnson) CL 105: Indigenous Feminist Theories (Carroll) 5

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