Comparative Literature

What does comparative literature mean in a rapidly changing world?

The Comparative Literature section at Utrecht University is an open community of internationally recognised scholars who work with literature in several languages and media. We consider what comparison means in a rapidly changing world, using multi-temporal, multilingual, intermedial, and critical frameworks. 

Literature of the World, bij Backforward24

As a group, we carry out our research and teaching with a broad understanding of the literary medium and value innovative approaches, such as:

  • literature as a (trans)cultural medium
  • cultural memory 
  • creativity- and comparative media studies
  • post/colonial studies 
  • digital-, environmental-, and medical humanities 
  • reader- and publishing studies, the sociology of literature 

Expertise

We offer a broad programme cutting through different historical periods, from the classical ages (in Europe, Eurasia, China, and India) to the present. Within this comprehensive setting, our staff members bring specific expertise in the fields of Anglophone and European, Chinese and Japanese, African, South Asian, and Eurasian literature. Their research ranges from books to bodies, trauma to translation, decoloniality to diaspora, (critical) ecology to e-cultures, and animals to activism.

    More information 

    Reach out to us if you are looking for a dissertation supervisor, or seek our expertise or collaboration. Visit the personal websites of our staff members by clicking on their names listed below, or visit the site of our research institute.

    See also our programme websites:

    Staff members