Graduate
Advising, Examinations and Ph.D. Candidacy
The Area Adviser
As already indicated, students will be heavily involved in choosing and
organizing their own areas of study. When they enter the Program, they must
identify what will be considered their first foreign language and literature.
They should also specify a field of study (e.g., European Romanticism,
Post-colonial Literature, Literature and Film) which will serve as the focus of
their studies. To make sure students get the best possible advice for their
academic careers, the Graduate Adviser will suggest names of possible Area
Advisers who share the particular academic interests of the students. Normally,
an Area Advisers will be a member of the Comparative Literature Graduate Studies
Committee or one of the Affiliated Faculty of the Program.
Students are responsible for arranging to meet with an Area Adviser and must notify the Graduate Adviser of their choice. If a student's interests change, the Area Adviser may, of course, be changed as well. The responsibility of the Area Adviser is to offer advice--both general and specific--as to what constitutes proper preparation in the student's field of interest (especially with regard to course selection, reading lists, examinations, and writing projects). Note, too, that the Area Adviser may or may not end up being someone with whom the student will continue to have an academic relationship (as, for example, a thesis or dissertation supervisor). The student should meet with the Area Adviser at least once a semester (preferably well in advance of preregistration for the following semester), the two should provide the Graduate Adviser with written notes of that meeting, so that the latter can responsibly supervise the student's academic progress.
The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination
The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination is a written examination taken at the beginning of the spring semester of the student's second full academic year in the Program, following the completion of the two-semester course Theories of Literary Criticism (CL 385 and CL 390). Note that students may not take the Qualifying Examination if they have "incomplete" grades for coursework. Failure to take the examination on time (or if the Graduate Adviser has not approved a delay for substantial reasons) may constitute grounds for dismissal from the Program.
During the spring and fall semesters of the student's first and second year (respectively), the student and the Area Adviser will compose a draft of the student's reading list for the explication part of the Qualifying Examination. This list should include 20 to 30 works at the core of the student's first foreign literature, from one of which the Qualifying Committee will select a passage for the examination. The examination has two parts, each lasting two hours. The first part involves a question of literary theory based on the work done in the two required Comparative Literature theory courses, the second requires the student to explicate a poem, a prose extract, or an episode from a play from the student's first foreign literature. Both portions of the examination are designed to test the student's knowledge of literature and literary theory as well as analytical and synthesizing abilities, in order to determine whether the student will succeed in the Program and, in particular, will be able to pass the Comprehensive Oral Examination and then write a doctoral dissertation based on original research. Both portions of the examination are intended to be predictive not only of the student's success in the Program, but later on in the profession as well.
For more information concerning the Qualifying Examination, students may obtain a handout from the Graduate Coordinator of the Program.
The Comprehensive Oral Examination
This examination is designed to allow students to demonstrate their mastery of one national literature as well as to sum up the knowledge they have acquired through course work and independent readings about a variety of other literatures, periods, genres, and theoretical concerns. The examination lasts two hours and is taken after students have completed all their course work for the Ph.D. In consultation with the Graduate Adviser (and with the Area Adviser, when that is appropriate), the student will form a Comprehensive Examination committee which will usually include the student's probable dissertation adviser. Under the guidance of this committee (and subject to approval by the Graduate Adviser), the student will identify at least three areas of world literature involving works written in three different languages, and then design reading lists for those areas. The first area will be a single national literature whose broad contours the student is expected to know (that is, a literature from a department such as English, French, Russian, or Japanese, in which the student might be able to fill an academic position).
The second and third areas must be generally comparative, involving between them literatures written in at least three different languages. These areas may focus on a period, genre, or theme, and they may be related to one another if they are broadly conceived. Normally, one of the areas will include, but not be restricted to, the student's anticipated dissertation subject (e.g., "European Renaissance drama" for a possible dissertation on Shakespeare and Corneille). The student is encouraged to consider presenting a fourth area on the examination: either a field within literary theory, or an extra-literary discipline (e.g., art history, musicology, folklore, cultural anthropology, linguistics). This fourth area may not substitute for the second or third area, unless the student is planning a dissertation in that subject. If a fourth area is presented, the reading lists for the other three areas may be adjusted to compensate for the additional effort and preparation.
Students may obtain more information about the Comprehensive Examination--including sample reading lists, scheduling details, and necessary forms--from the Graduate Coordinator of the Program.
The Prospectus Presentation
Within one long semester after successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination, the student, working closely with the dissertation committee, will write a Dissertation Prospectus of between 10 and 20 pages in length. The Prospectus will present a detailed working outline for the dissertation. It will consist of an introduction indicating the student's methodology or approach, an explanation of why this project is significant, and a description of the materials and problems to be discussed and the conclusions expected. There will also be brief descriptions of each chapter. The Prospectus should reveal the student's ability to undertake research on a topic within the context of existing scholarship and critical methodologies. It should also demonstrate the student's breadth of knowledge and potential for future success as a scholar and teacher.
The Prospectus Presentation will last an hour and will be an open event to which all Comparative Literature faculty and students as well as the general public are invited. It will begin with the student's introducing and outlining the dissertation orally (for about 15 or 20 minutes) and will continue with a question-and-answer session. The Prospectus Presentation will be considered successful if the student can offer a coherent focus for the project and a strategy for writing and can answer questions and objections raised by members of the audience. The student is not expected to have all the answers to every question, but must be able to explain the approach taken to the project, its relationship to existing scholarship, and the coherence of its design.
Ph.D. Candidacy
When the student has fulfilled all Ph.D. coursework and foreign language requirements, has passed the Comprehensive Examination and the Prospectus Presentation, and has chosen a dissertation director and a supervising committee of four other faculty members, then he or she will file for doctoral candidacy with the Graduate School and begin registering for the dissertation course. The student must fill out the Graduate School "Program of Work" and candidacy forms, and must obtain the approval of the director, the Graduate Adviser, the Graduate Studies Committee Chair of the Program, and the Graduate Dean. Please refer to the Graduate Catalog for all rules governing progress and completion of the dissertation.
The Dissertation
Each Ph.D. student in the Program will write a dissertation which may be: a comparison of works, traditions, themes, authors, or periods from two or more literatures, a study of the theory of literary criticism, a study of the interrelationship between literature and some other discipline, a substantial translation (the original text is subject to prior approval of the supervisory committee), together with a general introduction analyzing the work translated and/or discussing problems and theory of translation, and with detailed explanatory notes, or some other project which the student designs under the supervision and with the approval of the dissertation committee.
The Graduate School requires that dissertations be written in English, unless special permission is granted prior to undertaking the project.
The Dissertation Defense
The supervisory committee is responsible for approving the dissertation, which the student defends in an oral examination between one and two hours in length. This examination is conducted by the committee (at least four of its members must attend) and is open to the university community. The defense covers the dissertation, the general field of the dissertation, and other parts of the student's program, as determined by the committee.
Forms are available from the Graduate School both to apply for the granting of the Ph.D. and to request the official scheduling of the Defense (called the "Final Oral").