ABSTRACT
In the tandem structure, comparative literature is paired with another national literary tradition, most often English, resulting in a Department of English and Comparative Literature, in which the two programs supposedly exist on more or less equal footing with varying degrees of integration between them. One finds productive exchanges not only between comparative literature and film but also between comparative literature and art history, cultural studies, philosophy, television, and of course an array of national literary traditions, to mention only a few of the relevant fields. Designated emphases in which comparative literature graduate students have participated include critical theory, feminist theory and research, second language acquisition, social theory and comparative history, studies in performance and practice, and classics and classical receptions. Demonstrating the ways in which texts are filtered through manifold cultural influences in the process of translation, Jordan Smith’s concept of translationscapes exemplifies the practice of interdisciplinary nurture that increasingly characterizes comparative literature.
