The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures boasts five different majors

With a modern language and its attendant literature, culture, and history, students bridge the gap between the past and the present. By reading the great works of the Western intellectual tradition in their original languages, students draw themselves more closely to the ideas and the sources of textual wisdom that make us human.

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To speak and learn foreign languages is intrinsically human. Much of linguistic theory teaches us that we are hardwired for language. It is a part of us as thought, learning and culture are parts of us. Foreign language learning strengthens our thoughts and our experiences and our ability to communicate them. In this age of Twitter fragments, unreflective social media, vulgar public discourse and political intolerance, we need these foundations of learning more than ever. (Dr. Ivan Eidt, Associate Professor of German)

French

French is a small but vigorous program that combines the acquisition of language skills with a wide-ranging study of French culture. We look at France in the various stages of its development, as the "eldest daughter of the Church," the child of Marianne, and a dynamic member of the transnational community of the twenty-first century.

German

We offer an academically challenging and energetic course of studies in German language, literature and culture. Those who learn German gain access to an important intellectual, economic and culturally historic area of Central Europe.

Italian

The Italian language is not only a means of communication, but it also expresses the soul of a people, its roots, its history, its culture. In the modern world where globalization tends to level and homogenize different cultures, it is vital to keep alive, through the study of the Italian language, a culture that has always played a prominent role in the Western culture. Italian is a field of study whose language, literature, and culture are among the primary sources of the Western Intellectual Tradition. It focuses on the great and the beautiful, and on the poetic, sacred, artistic, and musical legacies of Italy, offering an innovative and interdisciplinary approach grounded in tradition, with courses in Italian language, literature, history, linguistics, and art history. Throughout the major we examine the paradox of modern Italy, a new country with ancient customs. As Prince Tancredi Falconeri put it in the classic novel The Leopard, a country in which “if we want everything to stay the same, everything must change.” The Italian Program offers both a B.A. and a Concentration.

Spanish

UD's Spanish Program celebrates the splendor of the Hispanic World, of Hispanidad, concentrating on the grand, the heroic, the poetic, the creative, the artistic, the holy, the stoic and other admirable facets of the legacy and contemporary reality of Spain and Spanish America. The Program also offers an interdisciplinary approach to Hispanidad through courses in Spanish language, literature, history, linguistics, and art history. Finally, the courses examine the tension between the unity and the rich diversity within the Hispanic world.

Comparative Literature

Comparative Literature is dedicated to the study of literature in the broadest possible framework – interlinguistic, intercultural, and interdisciplinary. Defined broadly, it is the study of "literature without walls." So it’s about making comparisons and connections between all sorts of literary and cultural realms.For details on our major programs in French, German, Spanish, and Comparative Literary Traditions, click on the above links.

Concentrations

It is also possible to "concentrate" in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Comparative Literature in combination with any major.