The American University of Paris | Comparative Literature and English

Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts Degree with a

12 credits:

Literary Theory and Criticism (3 credits)

Examines the major tenets, philosophical perspectives, and critical orientations of literary theory from Plato and Aristotle to the present. Students study critical texts from literary and non-literary disciplines, schools, and voices that have come to impact the Western theoretical canon, including psychoanalysis, Marxism, Russian formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, new historicism, and post colonialism.

Interdisciplinary Topics in Literature (3 credits)

Changes every year, offering the chance to study literature from within different perspectives and across different periods. Studies literature as it is actively involved with other artistic practices, such as painting or music, and engaged with other disciplines, such as science or philosophy or cultural studies or gender studies. Recent examples include: Literature and Science, Literature and Politics.

Masters of English Literature before 1800 (3 credits)

Begins with Old English literary texts, then examines selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the conventions of Middle English drama and lyrics, earlier Renaissance styles of lyric poetry (Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney), and then Shakespeare's Sonnets and a major Shakespeare play. Reviews the dominant styles of Metaphysical and Cavalier poetry (Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Crashaw, Suckling, Waller, Milton).

Masters of English Literature since 1800 (3 credits)

From the Romantic period, covers major examples of: prose - the transition from the 19th century models to Modernist experimentation; poetry - the development of modern poetic form and the fortunes of European hermetic influence in an increasingly politicized century; and drama - examples of absurdist and left-wing drama which have dominated the British stage since the 1950s.

6 credits to be chosen among the following 3 options:

Masters of French Literature I: The Rise of the Hero and the Poet in French Literature

Defines the originality of early French literature through reading of key texts. Traces innovation and imitation in French masterworks. Discusses topics such as epic quests and bride quests; courts, courtliness, and discourtesy; women, love, and marriage; Paris and the bourgeois spirit; bawdy tales and idealizing poetry; man's place in the universe and the writer's role in society. Written work accepted in French or English.

Masters of Spanish Literature I: The Golden Age in Spain and Europe

Examines the literary legacy of the Golden Age in Spain: popular ballad, love lyric, picaresque novel, mystic poetry, psychological tale, classical drama, and moral satire. Readings include La Celestina, Garcilaso de la Vega, Lazarillo de Tormes, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón, and Quevedo, concentrating on their sources and influence across Europe. Conducted in English. Written work accepted in English or Spanish.

Masters of Italian Literature I: Saints and Sinners in the Renaissance

Presents a panorama of pre-modern Italian poetry, prose, and drama within their European context. Readings include: early religious and erotic lyrics (Sicilians, Tuscans, and Stilnovists), Inferno (Dante), Rime (Petrarch), Decameron (Boccaccio), the fiction and drama of Machiavelli, the love sonnets of Michelangelo, the Socratic dialogues of Tasso, and the Utopian fiction of Campanella.

Masters of French Literature II: Loves Sacred and Profane in French Lyric

Follows the development of the love poetry tradition in France from its medieval origins through the Renaissance and into modern times. Studies troubadour canso, trouvère lyric, late medieval ballade, and the Renaissance sonnet sequence, followed by works from the Baroque period to Baudelaire and the contemporary poet Yves Bonnefoy. Written work accepted in French or English.

Masters of Spanish Literature II: Modern Latin American and Spanish Literature

Traces modern continental and Latin American literature from the Molieresque comedy of Moratín to the magical realism of García Márquez. Readings include Spanish authors (fiction by Galdós, Unamuno, Cela, Goytisolo), Spanish-American writers (poetry of Neruda, Paz and tales by Borges, Rulfo), and one Brazilian writer (Clarice Lispector). Conducted in English. Written work accepted in English or Spanish.

Masters of Italian Literature II: French & American Exchanges

Offers a sampling of modern and contemporary Italian masters beginning with early modern drama, prose, and poetry. Concentrates on selections from 20th century poetry and short fiction, with an emphasis on Italian authors who wrote partly in France or in French (Goldoni, Casanova, Leopardi, Ungaretti) or were influenced by America and its literature (Moravia, Pavese, Calvino).

Select one course from each of the following periods:

Click the course number to
view the course description

I - Ancient (3 credits)


CL313	Classical Hellenic Antiquity
CL315	Death and Desire in Imperial Rome
CL_PL317	Plato and Cicero

II - Medieval (3 credits)


CL257	Masters of French Literature I: The Rise of the Hero and the Poet in French Literature
CL322	European Arts of Love
CL_ES323	Chaucer and Medieval Culture
CL_ES325	Dante and Medieval Culture

III - Renaissance (3 credits)


CL253	Masters of Spanish Literature I: The Golden Age in Spain and Europe
CL255	Masters of Italian Literature I: Saints and Sinners in the Renaissance
CL258	Masters of French Literature II: Loves Sacred and Profane in French Lyric
CL329	Renaissance Comparative Literature: In Praise of Love, Honor, and Folly
CL_HI333	Discovery & Conquest: Creation of the New World
CL336	The Sanity of Illusion: Cervantes and the Modern Novel
CL_DR338	Shakespeare in Context
CL_FM348	Shakespeare and Film

IV - 18th and 19th Centuries (3 credits)


CL351	The Romantic Novel of Revolution
CL352	European Romantic Poetry: Feeding Upon Infinity
CL_HI353	In 1871...: Case Study in Comparative Literature and History
ES_CL354	The 18th Century Divide Between Philosophy and Literature
CL356	Dostoevsky and the 19th Century Novel: From Social Romanticism to Fantastic Realism
CL_GS357	19th Century Women Writers
CL358	The Realist Novel: Documents and Desires
CL_ES359	Baudelaire and Flaubert: Writing Modernity
CL360	Literature and the Political Imagination in the Nineteenth Century
CL362	Conquering Colonies: America and European Literature
CL368	The Varieties of Russian Fiction: Prose Writers of the 19th Century

V - 20th Century (3 credits)


GS_CL206	Contemporary Feminist Theory
CL254	Masters of Spanish Literature II: Modern Latin American and Spanish Literature
CL256	Masters of Italian Literature II: French & American Exchanges
CL302	Word & Image: Literature and the Visual Arts
CL327	Law and Literature
ES_CL343	The Attraction of Paris: Modernist Experiments in Migration
CL_GS363	Writing Women: Feminism, Freud, and Literary Inscriptions of Femininity
CL364	Magic Realism and the Fantastic: Contemporary Latin American Fiction
CL365	Post-War European Literature
FM_CL369	The Aesthetics of Crime Fiction
CL371	20th Century Latin American Writers: Literature, Politics, and History
CL373	Ulysses and British Modernism
CL374	Russian Modernism: Topics in 20th Century Russian Literature
CL376	Modern Sexuality and the Process of Writing
ES_CL377	The Experience of Time in Early 20th Century Writing
CL379	Proust and Beckett: The Art of Failure
CL381	Postcolonial Literatures and Theory
CL_GS384	Writing from the Margins: Women Writers, Postcolonial Identities

1) An additional 300-level CL course (3 credits) or CL495 Senior Project: Critical or Creative Paper (3 credits)

2) CL490 Senior Seminar: Special Studies in Comparative Literature (3 credits)

General electives to total 120 credits can be chosen from any other degree program in the university. See AUP Catalog for details.