1. INTRODUCTION

Ever since its inception five decades ago, the Programme in Comparative Literature has been among the most highly rated and popular programmes of study offered by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb. For every student admitted in the Programme in Comparative Literature there are on average 9 to 10 applicants. In the 1990s the ratio was over 300 applicants for the total of 30 students admitted. Since the new admission procedure has been introduced at the Faculty in 2002, the Programme in Comparative Literature is one of the five or six programmes offered by the Faculty that has had its admission quota filled on the first day. The quality of the Programme in Comparative Literature is further confirmed by the fact that each semester some 30 students who are majoring in some other programme choose the courses offered by the Department of Comparative Literature, as well as the fact that every year a dozen students apply for the Programme in Comparative Literature as their third major. The Programme in Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb is the only such programme in Croatia.

The Department of Comparative Literature has always been distinguished by keeping up to date with the methods and issues in literary scholarship, constantly implementing new approaches and introducing new courses in the curriculum. The Programme covers all subjects and issues generally understood as relevant for the study of literature and culture. The Department of Comparative Literature in Zagreb remains the most advanced department in the region. Moreover, already in the early 1970s, the Department of Comparative Literature has implemented the principles underlying the current reform of the university programmes.

The Programme in Comparative Literature has a lot to offer both in terms of high quality university education, and in terms of career options, in public and private sectors alike. The Programme has an almost perfect placement record, which testifies to the fact that the students acquire not only specialist knowledge, but a range of skills useful in the current job market. The Programme in Comparative Literature is comprised of courses in world literature, comparative history of Croatian literature, literary theory, methods in literary scholarship, theatre and film studies, and other relevant subjects in the field of the humanities, such as feminism and psychoanalysis. The degree in comparative literature presents students with a wide range of career options, including various jobs in the media, publishing, film, theatre, as well as jobs in the area of translation or lexicography.

People with a degree in comparative literature are today heads of media corporations or public and commercial television networks; editors and journalists in the leading Croatian dailies and magazines; and hold important positions in marketing agencies, civil service and diplomacy. Cultural policy, education, public libraries, research institutes, NGOs, academia – these are the sectors of society in which a degree in comparative literature enables efficiency and excellence. It is therefore reasonable to expect that the various programmes offered by the Department should be competitive in attracting the interest of the business community in possible co-operation and additional funding. Among the members of the Department of Comparative Literature there are recipients of life achievement awards and various annual awards for excellence, and members of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Members of the Department faculty have started new programmes of study at the Faculty of Philosophy and the University of Zagreb. Most have an outstanding international experience and reputation, are engaged on several international research projects and teach at various post-graduate programmes at other universities.

The Programme in Comparative Literature is compatible with similar programmes offered by various European and American universities, such as: Centro interdipartimentale di teoria e storia comparata della letteratura (Università degli studi di Bologna), Komparatistik (Universität Tübingen), Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft (Universität Wien), Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft (Universität Innsbruck), Centrum komparatistiky (Univerzita Karlova, Prague), Department of Comparative Literature (Stanford University), Program in Literature (Duke University), Curriculum of Comparative Literature (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Department of Comparative Literature (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Comparative Literature Department (Indiana University), etc.

Further information about the study of comparative literature around the world, and the links to relevant web-sites of the institutions offering such programmes are available on the web-site: http://www.swan.ac.uk/german/bcla/clww.htm.

The Programme in Comparative Literature is, in its content and structure, designed to enable student mobility, both in national and international contexts. The students of comparative literature have as a rule performed very well when applying for various international scholarships and grants. It is therefore to be expected that this trend should continue under the new conditions created by the Bologna process. The Department of Comparative Literature has already made preliminary arrangements for exchange of faculty and students with the similar programme at the University of Ljubljana, and considers establishing similar exchange programmes with other European, American or Australian universities, i.e. their respective departments, programmes and institutes, as well.

2. GENERAL

2.1. Programme of study: comparative literature

2.2. Offered by the Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb

2.3. Length of study: 3 years (6 semesters)

2.4. Admission requirements: high school diploma and a required score in the admission procedure

2.5. The undergraduate programme in comparative literature is offered as a single major and a double major programme, as well as a minor course for the students majoring in some other programme at the University of Zagreb. The programme consists of courses in history of world literature, comparative history of Croatian literature, literary theory, methods in literary scholarship, theatre and film studies, and other relevant subjects in the humanities, such as gender studies, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, semiotics, sociology of culture, aesthetics, media studies, etc. The students gain knowledge and skills that enable them to pursue a career in various cultural institutions and the media, while also providing a solid foundation for all those graduate programmes in the humanities and social sciences offered by the University of Zagreb or any other university, which are based on the tradition of liberal arts education. According to the current admission quota, the number of students admitted in the undergraduate programme in comparative literature averages 25 (i.e. 50 students in a double major option), plus about 25 students majoring in other programmes offered by the Faculty of Philosophy or changing their major. The total is thus 75 (double major) students on average for each year. Since the Bologna process makes possible for the student to choose a single major in comparative literature, the proposed quota would be: 10 single major and 30 (15 x 2) double major students.

The Deputy-Head of the Department is the Director of the undergraduate programme.

2.7. The undergraduate and graduate programme are not conceived as a single programme cycle, but the students who receive a BA in comparative literature (with a grade average of at least 3.5) would, of course, be the best candidates for the MA programme. The undergraduate programme offers basic knowledge necessary for the continuation of study, as well as a general survey of all the areas of study. The courses are more general in nature, the students write less, and the work the students do on their own – mentored through the weekly meetings with supervisors – is directed toward achieving competence in the more general issues in literary history, literary theory, theatre and film studies. There is a final examination (test + essay) where the students are expected to demonstrate to have mastered the more general issues in the field of study.

The graduate programme offers various areas for in depth study. A more varied selection of courses, emphasis on the interdisciplinary approach, the required second foreign language, participation in small scale projects, and the research and the writing of the diploma essay are all designed to prepare the students for post-graduate study and/or for a competent and professional work in various jobs requiring the skills and knowledge they acquire in the programme.

2.8. Degree awarded: BA in the humanities (programme: comparative literature)

The students who choose the minor programme in comparative literature do not receive any degree in either undergraduate or graduate programme.

Further details available here.