Comparative World Literature
What in the World is World Literature?
A new course for first-year students will explore texts from around the world and introduce the discipline of world literature.
Seeing World Literature Otherwise
Early Visions of Global CinemaMichael Allan of the University of Oregon shared his work on 19th-century camera operators for the 2019 World Literature Week keynote…
Shaping the Digital Future
Associate Professor Katherine Elkins has been awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorship…
Literature Exceeding Boundaries
An annual week of events gives the Kenyon community the opportunity to learn, discuss and share research.
Academic All-Stars
CWL major Phoebe Carter '17 is one of two students honored with the Franklin Miller Award for their academic contributions to Kenyon…
Welcome to Comparative World Literature!
The concentration in Comparative World Literature expands the study of literature to include the wider world and crosses borders in more ways than one. It emphasizes the study of literature as transnational and interdisciplinary, in recognition of global literature's expansive, intensely interconnected networks and trajectories. It also brings together faculty from English, Modern Languages & Literatures, and Classics with the aim of showcasing the exciting breadth and diversity of literary study at Kenyon. Students doing the CWL concentration thus study texts in different languages and literary traditions and across different historical periods and genres. Our courses move between national literatures and explore global and cross-cultural perspectives. Fundamental to the concentration is coursework in two literary traditions. This is world literature in a comparative and collaborative perspective!