Comparative Literature collaborates extensively with Finnish Literature, Cultural History and other disciplines of the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies and several language departments of the School of Languages and Translation Studies as well as the other faculties in the University of Turku, other Finnish universities and our international partners.
The Department of Comparative Literature is a vibrant hub for research that features several major multidisciplinary research projects as well as a wide range of individual researchers. We run the SELMA research centre, which focuses on storytelling, experientiality and cultural memory, as well as the international research network Narrative and Memory. The Department is research-oriented, and its research profile is wide-ranging both in its theoretical scope and geographic and temporal reach. Our focus is on contextual approaches to literature.
Through theoretical thinking, historical understanding and textual analysis, the study of comparative literature focuses on the functions of literature and the forms of historical, cultural and social experiences to which literature gives expression. The study of comparative literature provides students with the skills necessary for rigorous textual analysis, critical and independent scientific thought and a multifaceted understanding of world history and different theoretical approaches.
Comparative Literature aims to understand and interpret the characteristics, meanings and social conditions of literary phenomena by utilising both theoretical and historical approaches. The Department of Comparative Literature offers a broad perspective on different cultures and provides students with the tools for analysing contemporary cultural phenomena in a critical and insightful manner.