The mission of the Comparative Literature Program is to establish a strong common framework for all students of literature at Middlebury College by facilitating cooperation and communication among scholars and teachers of literature in all departments and programs involved.

Comparative literature differs from other approaches to literature in that it prepares students to focus on the comparative study of national literatures. In particular, students receive training in at least two of these literatures in the original language along with comparative methodology.

The Comparative Literature Program offers a core course on world literature, cross-lists several literature and culture courses with other departments and programs, and encourages students to consider the many Middlebury courses on English-language literature and on world literature in the original languages and in English translation.

CMLT 0101 (Introduction to World Literature), our core course, is the first of a series of courses that center on the study of literature across cultures, times, and languages. The staff for each year’s version of CMLT 0101, normally offered in the spring semester, is drawn from at least three departments and programs. The Comparative Literature Program offers a major, but CMLT 0101 may be also counted toward the major in English and American Literatures, Literary Studies, and in some of the foreign literature and language departments.