比较文学拓宽了单一文学作品的范围，提供了一种超越语言和文化的国家边界的方法，并研究了国际背景下的主要作者，时期，体裁，趋势和运动。传统上，比较文学也是对一个特定国家或半球地区的地理文化范围之外的文学的研究。此外，它特别关注文学与其他知识和智力探究领域之间关系的研究。这些包括语言学，视觉和表演艺术（例如电影，绘画，雕塑，建筑，音乐），哲学，历史，社会科学（例如政治，经济学，社会学），科学，宗教等。总而言之，这是文学与人类认识论，表达和智力研究的其他领域的比较。该系提供LLCL硕士学位，主要涉及六个领域：比较
Comparative Literature is a graduate program of study for the Master of Arts, available to majors in British, French, German, Italian, Peninsular Spanish, Latin American or United States literatures. Comparative Literature broadens the context of single works of literature, provides a method of looking beyond the national frontiers of languages and cultures, and studies major authors, periods, genres, trends and movements in international contexts. Comparative Literature is also, by tradition, the study of literature beyond the geocultural boundaries of one particular country or hemispheric region. In addition, it pays special attention to the study of relationships between literature and other areas of knowledge and intellectual inquiry. These include linguistics, the visual and performing arts (e.g., cinema, painting, sculpture, architecture, music), philosophy, history, the social sciences (e.g., politics, economics, sociology), the sciences, religion, and so forth. In sum, it is the comparison of the literary with other spheres of human epistemology, expression and intellectual investigation. A cardinal feature of the graduate curriculum is the small core requirement in terms of specific courses, and the correspondingly large number of electives taken in different fields. Each student develops his or her own program in consultation with Comparative Literature faculty and pursues individually supervised research projects, beginning in LIT 6066 and culminating in a comparative thesis (30-credit program) or an exam without a thesis (36-credit program). An additional forum for discussion and cooperative effort is FACS (Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies), a professional scholarly journal edited in the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature.