Department of Comparative Literature
Hong Kong University
The Department of Comparative Literature offers courses in literature, film, and culture in their broadest senses, in international and interdisciplinary contexts and perspectives. Our curriculum reaches beyond any single national culture to explore relations between texts, locations, and historical contexts. Students learn to read culture by analyzing many forms of writing, film, and other socio-cultural phenomena, from the city and its spaces to the media and popular culture. Texts are studied in English, though texts in Chinese are often used in cross-cultural studies and in Hong Kong and Chinese studies.
At the end of the program, students should be able to demonstrate a critical awareness of local and global socio-cultural issues through textual and contextual, as well as formal and theoretical, analysis. They should be able to apply critical theories and methodologies to respond creatively to unfamiliar cultural texts, images, and contexts. They should be able to critically reflect on their own identities as well as ways of seeing diversity in Hong Kong, China, Asia, and the world. Because of their academic training in literary and cultural studies, students demonstrate strong communicative ability (including writing skills), cultural literacy, and a sharp ethical sense of being responsible citizens and individuals.
The program’s faculty publish consistently in Hong Kong and Chinese film, literary, and cultural studies, as well as in critical theory and cultural critique more globally. In general we share a commitment to historical and contextual analysis, while deploying theory as a means to understand and intervene in culture, society, and scholarship.
Contact Information
Daniel Vukovich, Professor
MIrana Szeto, Professor
958 RRS Arts Tower
Pokfulam Road
Hong Kong, HONG KONG
Hong Kong http://www.complit.hku.hk/aboutus/aboutus.html
vukovich@hku.hk
Region
Asia and the Pacific Rim
East Asia
Academic Program
Ph.D.
M.A.
Year Established
1989
Fellowships and Potential Scholarly Affiliations
Department of Comparative Literature Fellowships