The Program in Comparative Literature and the GDR offer interlocking doctoral programs in an emerging "field" that may be described both as a religious turn in literary theory and as a transformation of the older model of religion and literature. Students are admitted either through the GDR or through the Program in Comparative Literature and must fulfill all the requirements for one degree or the other. The description here applies to the Ph.D. in Religion.

The GDR program considers religions and their textual traditions as literatures that call for analysis and criticism. To do convincing analysis or criticism, students in the program must combine detailed knowledge of some part of a major religion or religions with competence in comparative literary models and theories. Courses specific to the program treat major texts in one or more religions, the rhetoric of religious writing, the definition and use of literary texts as religious documents, the functions of literary criticism within religious traditions, religious accounts of cultural difference or otherness, the construction of the topic "religion," the presuppositions and practices of comparative study, religion in "postmodern" and "postcolonial" projects, and queer or subversively eroticized religion. While the primary focus is on the intersection of comparative literature and religious studies, the program also engages pertinent topics and methods from other fields.

Seminars regularly offered in the interlocking programs include "Theories of Myth," "Foucault and Christianity," "Augustine and His Readers," "Texts in Ritual," "Lyotard: Passion of the Soul," "Theology in the Trivium," and "Trauma." Students are encouraged to take appropriate courses and to work with faculty in the enormous range of programs, centers, and institutes at Emory. In addition to the GDR requirements for all students, the Program in Comparative Literature and Religion specifically requires the following courses: a core seminar in literary theories (CPLT 750); four other courses in Comparative Literature, which will provide competence in both the fundamental elements of literary traditions and methods of literary reading; and either five courses in a single religious tradition or eight in a tightly constructed comparison of two traditions. The Preliminary Examinations will require students to show mastery of the principal canon(s) of their chosen religious tradition(s), including their reception and revision, as well as of pertinent theories and methods from religious studies and comparative literature.

Comparative Literature and Religion Faculty

Cathy Caruth (Ph.D., Yale University, 1988) Winship Distinguished Research Professor (English and Comparative Literature). British and German romanticism, literary theory, psychoanalytic writing, trauma theory.

Pam Hall (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, 1987) Associate Professor (Philosophy and Women’s Studies). Ethics, moral psychology, feminist thought, tragedy and virtue ethics, saints and moral exemplars.

Mark Jordan (Ph.D., University of Texas, 1977) Asa Griggs Candler Professor (Religion). Varieties of religious rhetoric; Christian teachings on sex, especially same-sex relations; religious writing and power.

Claire Nouvet (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1981) Associate Professor (French & Italian). Medieval French literature and culture.

Laurie Patton (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1991) Winship Distinguished Research Professor (Religion). Religion in ancient India, Vedic studies, history of religions.

Jill Robbins (Ph.D., Yale University, 1985) Professor (Religion and Comparative Literature). Levinas; Blanchot; philosophical and biblical hermeneutics.