Associations & Reputations of US Comp Lit Programs

[hendecasyllabics]

I’m an international student aspiring to apply to Comparative Literature PhD programs in the US (probably in the Fall 23 cycle...I’m planning ahead?) but I know pretty much nothing about US universities, apart from what I have read on their websites. I have a few questions that will definitely influence the courses that I take in the next year, so I would be very grateful if anyone here would be willing to share their insight!☺️

I have read on here before that certain universities have quite specific reputations when it comes to literary theory. This is a huge ask but would anybody be able to elaborate on this? For example, what kind of theory is prioritised at Yale as opposed to Stanford, Harvard etc. In a similar vein, would a theory-heavy writing sample be more recommended for some programs and discouraged for others? Also, do certain courses focus more on languages than theory? I suppose I am asking generally what the literary theory scene is like in the US at the moment—it’s not too big at my current university and quite a few of my professors are actually opposed to theory altogether!

A little background: I have two foreign languages to a high level of proficiency, and a third to good working proficiency (I can read and understand it quite well but can’t speak it too fluently at the moment). I am looking to pick up another language in the next year (if only so that more scholarship is accessible to me?). I don’t really have anyone at my current university who can advise me on applying to US programs, so I am appealing to the internet! If anybody is willing respond I will be very appreciative?

[labradoodle]

This is such a good question! I'm sorry I can't help you, but just wanted to add that if anyone is reading this and thinking "I only know this with regard to English programmes," that I'm definitely following and interested in that info haha, and so feel free to share! I hope this doesn't come across as me hijacking your post; it just really made me realize that this is something I've been trying to find out without really being aware of it! Good luck with your applications, it seems like you really have everything together so you'll probably do so well!!

[WomanOfLetters]

I'm interested in finding out more info about this too! FWIW, I used to think that Yale might still have some connection to the deconstruction school, but after digging a bit more I found out that the deconstructionists have moved to UC Irvine. Now I don't know what they are doing anymore. I guess a possible way to find out about this is to look through the profiles of the current graduate students. You might be able to get a sense of what they are doing in each school. 

[EM51413]

Current PhD student in comparative literature at UChicago here.

The deconstructionists moved to UC Irvine a while back - yes, but Heidegger is having a moment at Yale. Emory is very strong on deconstruction and psychoanalysis. Harvard comp lit is more interested in "World Literature" nowadays, and so is Chicago, in a way. Columbia is great for postcolonial theory and new media. Duke is known for Marxism, critical race theory, and media theory. Stanford has a good digital humanities and German thought tradition, but is now moving more toward Critical Theory and postcolonial studies. (This is of course going off my very subjective impressions, and all these places have faculty that work on a variety of things, and sometimes there are splits between older and younger faculty...the best way to tell, actually, is to look at recent dissertations from the programs.) But in general, theory is more and more optional in many of these places, even if some programs still have strong theory-related preferences (you can't have a thing against the marxists and hope to get into Duke, for example). Most programs won't turn someone down just because they haven't read all of Lacan's Ecrits, because fewer and fewer people get rigorous theory training in undergrad. If anything, there's something of a turn away from "high theory" in general across comp lit departments, and on some occasions a theory heavy writing sample will hurt you if not paired with demonstrated knowledge of foreign languages and literatures (or if it's the "wrong" kind of theory for that department). But as always, every trend has exceptions (cf. Emory, which is almost stuck in the 80s...).

Happy to answer more questions if this is all too vague! 

[WomanOfLetters]

On 6/5/2021 at 3:10 AM, EM51413 said:

Current PhD student in comparative literature at UChicago here.

The deconstructionists moved to UC Irvine a while back - yes, but Heidegger is having a moment at Yale. Emory is very strong on deconstruction and psychoanalysis. Harvard comp lit is more interested in "World Literature" nowadays, and so is Chicago, in a way. Columbia is great for postcolonial theory and new media. Duke is known for Marxism, critical race theory, and media theory. Stanford has a good digital humanities and German thought tradition, but is now moving more toward Critical Theory and postcolonial studies. (This is of course going off my very subjective impressions, and all these places have faculty that work on a variety of things, and sometimes there are splits between older and younger faculty...the best way to tell, actually, is to look at recent dissertations from the programs.) But in general, theory is more and more optional in many of these places, even if some programs still have strong theory-related preferences (you can't have a thing against the marxists and hope to get into Duke, for example). Most programs won't turn someone down just because they haven't read all of Lacan's Ecrits, because fewer and fewer people get rigorous theory training in undergrad. If anything, there's something of a turn away from "high theory" in general across comp lit departments, and on some occasions a theory heavy writing sample will hurt you if not paired with demonstrated knowledge of foreign languages and literatures (or if it's the "wrong" kind of theory for that department). But as always, every trend has exceptions (cf. Emory, which is almost stuck in the 80s...).

Happy to answer more questions if this is all too vague! 

Thank you again for another detailed reply! This information is hugely useful for me. I'm primarily interested in psychoanalysis (and deconstruction) but the Emory's comp. lit. department does not seem to be too big on the languages I'm working on ? I don't think I'll be applying to Harvard (as the program requires proficiency in 4 languages) but how does "world literature" differ from comp. lit.? 

I'm so glad to hear so many of these programs are still teaching theories! ☺️

[EM51413]

3 hours ago, EverBetter said:

I'm primarily interested in psychoanalysis (and deconstruction) but the Emory's comp. lit. department does not seem to be too big on the languages I'm working on ? 

Glad this is helpful! Yeah, Emory's comp lit department is neither particularly comparative (unless you happen to work on French) nor particularly focused on literature...it's really more a continental thought department. Both Duke and JHU sound ideal for your interests. I did my undergrad at JHU, in fact...and that's where I got my psychoanalysis and deconstruction. Both are certainly still alive in Gilman Hall.

3 hours ago, EverBetter said:

but how does "world literature" differ from comp. lit.? 

Great question. Short answer is one usually thinks of comparative literature as comparing a few literary works in two or three languages, usually connected by genre, influence, theme, the authors knowing each other...etc. (Funny enough, I don't know many colleagues who actually do stuff like this, but it remains the basic model nevertheless.) World literature as a literary-critical project is more interested in zooming all the way out and looking at global circulations of literatures, larger-scale flows and higher-level patterns. I'd check out the writings by people like Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova, and David Damrosch (who is at Harvard) to get a sense. If you haven't heard of the term don't worry about it too much, though. During my applications the only school that asked about it during interview was Yale...told them I hadn't thought about it that much and got accepted anyway. (Maybe they're feeling the pressure to do more Harvardy things? Who knows.) I wouldn't think Harvard is a good fit for you even without the language issue - they don't do a lot of theory there, at least compared to the places you're thinking about.

[labradoodle]

5 hours ago, EM51413 said:

 Yeah, Emory's comp lit department is neither particularly comparative (unless you happen to work on French) nor particularly focused on literature...it's really more a continental thought department.

Thanks so much for this, and the info above! Has definitely helped me a lot as well (especially since I'd never have looked at comp lit but this does seem possibly to be really right for me!)

[WomanOfLetters]

On 6/6/2021 at 9:32 PM, EM51413 said:

Glad this is helpful! Yeah, Emory's comp lit department is neither particularly comparative (unless you happen to work on French) nor particularly focused on literature...it's really more a continental thought department. Both Duke and JHU sound ideal for your interests. I did my undergrad at JHU, in fact...and that's where I got my psychoanalysis and deconstruction. Both are certainly still alive in Gilman Hall.

Yes, Duke is definitely one of my dream programs! Rey Chow is an expert in my area of studies (which is rather rare), even though she's a Foucauldian (and Foucault was not a fan of psychoanalysis...) And Fredric Jameson, of course. 

On 6/6/2021 at 9:32 PM, EM51413 said:

During my applications the only school that asked about it during interview was Yale...told them I hadn't thought about it that much and got accepted anyway. 

Do you mind if I ask why did you choose UChicago over Yale? Is it because of research interests? Also, do you have any advice on how to write personal statement / writing sample? Do you think the writing sample has to be in the same field as my intended dissertation project? I'm thinking if I should submit a comparative essay in the three national literatures I plan to pursue, but then 25 pages is unlikely to be enough for a good analysis.

[EM51413]

46 minutes ago, EverBetter said:

Rey Chow is an expert in my area of studies (which is rather rare), even though she's a Foucauldian (and Foucault was not a fan of psychoanalysis...) And Fredric Jameson, of course. 

Rey Chow AND Fredric Jameson? That's interesting, especially since Chow is known for criticizing Western armchair Marxists such as a certain F. J...

51 minutes ago, EverBetter said:

Do you mind if I ask why did you choose UChicago over Yale? Is it because of research interests?

Faculty, mostly. And institutional Geist. But happy to talk about it (and writing sample stuff) more...sending you a DM! 

[WomanOfLetters]

23 hours ago, EM51413 said:

Rey Chow AND Fredric Jameson? That's interesting, especially since Chow is known for criticizing Western armchair Marxists such as a certain F. J...

Wow, that I did not know! Very often these things were never brought up in class (but I got assigned to read both of them...)

23 hours ago, EM51413 said:

Faculty, mostly. And institutional Geist. But happy to talk about it (and writing sample stuff) more...sending you a DM! 

Thank you again! You've been more than helpful and generous! ?

[hendecasyllabics]

i have nothing to add, just wanted to say:@EM51413thank you very much for all of your help!! i really, really appreciate it☺️ it’s good to hear that theory isn’t everything in these programs! i was a little concerned since my only training in literary theory so far has been through my university’s not-so-rigorous survey course?

[labradoodle]

@EM51413Sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you also had any knowledge about departments currently strong on philosophy and literature, especially in the context of postmodernism and marxism? Apart from those mentioned here, I only had Duke on my radar, and Binghamton, but am honestly getting very weird vibes from that one. Apart from that, I mainly end up at programmes strong in 'critical theory,' but as I'm not someone having gender/postcolonial theory as main interests, I'm feeling quite hesitant all-round.

[EM51413]

On 6/11/2021 at 9:45 AM, labradoodle said:

Apart from those mentioned here, I only had Duke on my radar, and Binghamton, but am honestly getting very weird vibes from that one. 

I don't know much about UC Davis and Binghamton. When I visited Emory people were talking about how their department doesn't really have faculty working on Marxism...but on the other hand, there are few better programs than Emory for studying 20th century French thought imho, and people there are very much up to speed with contemporary European conversations.

On 6/11/2021 at 9:45 AM, labradoodle said:

especially in the context of postmodernism and marxism?

The thing is, these are both really broad categories. Postmodernism go everywhere from new historicism to deconstruction to phenomenology to whatever Deleuze is doing, and Marxism can go from political economy to Frankfurt school critical theory to whatever Zizek is doing. Are there specific scholars whose work you admire? That might be a starting point for narrowing things down a little.

The place traditionally known for "philosophy and literature" is Stanford, and they are still strong in that regard due to the legacy of people like Rorty and Gumbrecht...but administratively that department is complicated. Suffice to say the comp lit department there seems to share PhD spots with a number of national literature departments, and there are years when they'd interview a bunch of people and not accept any of them. Have you read stuff by Martin Hägglund at Yale? He was trained as a Derridian at Cornell but then wrote a Heideggerian reading of Marx in a public-intellectual-y book. Take a look, and if you like that approach, Yale might not be a bad option. Also a "philosophy and literature" project might be feasible in some English departments - back in undergrad I had a professor who does amazing work on philosophical existentialism and the novel. She got her PhD from Harvard English not too long ago. But I'm afraid I don't know much about English departments in general.

[labradoodle]

On 6/11/2021 at 11:21 AM, EM51413 said:

I don't know much about UC Davis and Binghamton. When I visited Emory people were talking about how their department doesn't really have faculty working on Marxism...but on the other hand, there are few better programs than Emory for studying 20th century French thought imho, and people there are very much up to speed with contemporary European conversations.

The thing is, these are both really broad categories. Postmodernism go everywhere from new historicism to deconstruction to phenomenology to whatever Deleuze is doing, and Marxism can go from political economy to Frankfurt school critical theory to whatever Zizek is doing. Are there specific scholars whose work you admire? That might be a starting point for narrowing things down a little.

The place traditionally known for "philosophy and literature" is Stanford, and they are still strong in that regard due to the legacy of people like Rorty and Gumbrecht...but administratively that department is complicated. Suffice to say the comp lit department there seems to share PhD spots with a number of national literature departments, and there are years when they'd interview a bunch of people and not accept any of them. Have you read stuff by Martin Hägglund at Yale? He was trained as a Derridian at Cornell but then wrote a Heideggerian reading of Marx in a public-intellectual-y book. Take a look, and if you like that approach, Yale might not be a bad option. Also a "philosophy and literature" project might be feasible in some English departments - back in undergrad I had a professor who does amazing work on philosophical existentialism and the novel. She got her PhD from Harvard English not too long ago. But I'm afraid I don't know much about English departments in general.

Thank you so much! I love Heidegger and Derrida, so will definitely look into Martin Hägglund! I'm also definitely going to look more into what exactly it is in postmodernism that I like - I have some ideas of course, but this has helped me enormously to realize that I definitely need to look further. Again, thank you!!