Comparative Literature: About

Literature does not belong to one place or one time.

Comparative Literature is the study of texts across languages, cultures, and histories. We read novels, poetry, film, and music not as isolated objects — but as conversations. Every text speaks to other texts. Every story carries the trace of another.

At CCNY, we approach literature as a living, moving force — shaped by translation, migration, and the ongoing negotiation of meaning across borders.
 

Literature is not only the written word.

We study novels, poetry, film, music, and visual art — understanding each medium as a form of storytelling shaped by its cultural moment. A film and a novel from the same country can say contradictory things. A song and a poem can ask the same question across centuries.

Comparative Literature at CCNY trains you to move between these forms — reading them together, against each other, and across the borders that usually keep them apart.
 

Scholars of difference.

The Comparative Literature department at CCNY is a community of readers, writers, and thinkers from across the world. Our faculty and students bring perspectives shaped by multiple languages, literary traditions, and cultural histories.

We are located in New York City — one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse cities on earth — and that context shapes everything we do. The world we study is the world we inhabit.