The Sappho We Fell in Love With
Mary Barnard reinvented an ancient poet for a modern world.
By Professor Emily Greenwood
With Sappho, where else to begin but on the pillow? In the…
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Professor Jeffrey Schnapp introducing Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
Congratulations to our seniors for turning in their senior theses!
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Professor Jeffrey Schnapp introducing Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
-Photo by Mira Kaplan-
Photo of Renato Poggioli 2026 Guest Speaker Wesleyan President Michael Roth
Congratulations to our seniors for turning in their senior theses!
The novel has been described as the quintessential literary form of modernity, but do we know what a novel actually is? And is it just a modern form? In this seminar we will look at a range of pathbreaking works that have bent the norms of prose fiction and have opened up new ways of understanding the world, from antiquity to the present. Readings will include selections from The Odyssey, The Tale of Genji, and Don Quixote, together with a range of modern novels, informed by several important statements on the novel, especially by the writers themselves.
This course will explore contemporary literature and cinema across Southeast Asia, focusing on regional developments after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 through the present. Themes discussed include literature’s relationship to economic turmoil and political change; questions of class and social mobility; anti-authoritarian writing and issues of censorship; literature, youth culture, and new media landscapes; and literary explorations of gender and sexuality. Readings will include a selection of critical essays to foreground these central themes of the course, along with poetry, short fiction, and films from: Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Readings will be taught in English translation and films will be screened with English subtitles.
Spring 2026 + Spring 2027: A re-examination of “Lyric” as occasion as well as genre. Central questions to be explored will include: how do the “lyrics” of composed song come alive in performance? For example, how do the two librettists of Puccini’s opera “La Bohème” contribute to the making of a masterpiece in song? Shared readings include “The Lyric Theory Reader: A Critical Anthology”, edited by Virginia Jackson and Yopie Prins. Students are free to select as their focus of research any particular “lyric” traditions, composed in whatever language. No previous knowledge of literary theory is presumed.
Future course planned for 2027-28: In this course, students will read English translations of ten novels that have recently won major prizes. In addition to exploring themes of contemporary literature from around the world, special attention will be paid to the role of translation in shaping the work and its reception, and to the question of what makes for a prize-winning translation. Each week students will read a prize-winning translated novel alongside reports from the prize committee, reviews of the translation, and what the translators say about their work.
Reflecting the ongoing paradigm shift of comparative studies from an almost exclusive focus on Western European traditions to a newly global awareness, our faculty ranks have expanded in recent years to encompass a world-wide range of languages and cultures.
Check out our Prospective Concentrators and Peer Advisors
pages for more information.
Contact our Director of Undergraduate Studies,
Dr. Sandra Naddaff.
During the academic year 2026-2027, the Department of Comparative Literature will be carrying out a senior rank search in the field of Yiddish Studies.
Founded as a graduate program in 1904 and joining with the undergraduate Literature Concentration in 2007, Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature operates at the crossroads of multilingualism, literary study, and media history.
© 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College
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