Concentration Info

Spoken today in Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Romance languages and their rich literary and cultural heritage play a key role in the world's multicultural societies.  

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures focuses on the four most widely used Romance languages and on their literary traditions around the globe. Harvard has offered courses in French, Italian and Spanish since at least the early nineteenth century. Portuguese was added in 1886. In 1900, the Department of French merged with several Romance branches of the Modern Language Department to form the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. 

The RLL curriculum honors both the shared origins of this cultural community and the variety of directions its members have taken throughout history. Courses offer opportunities for intensive study of renowned authors—Dante, Montaigne, Camões, Cervantes, Duras, Borges, Balzac, Pessoa, and others—whose works have shaped world literature over time, alongside present-day and rediscovered writers who have forged new pathways in fiction, poetry, and the graphic novel. RLL is the place to explore how modern Romance literature and film intersect with other languages and cultures, and how they have developed as a vibrant presence in the United States and on the border.  

In RLL, students discover many new ways of understanding languages, literature, film, and visual arts. They also have the opportunity to explore issues of gender, race, political structures, and the environment. Many courses offer hands-on experience with poetry, theater, and translation, as well.  

In addition to courses focused on works in single language or particular region, our Romance Studies offerings engage with works from two or more Romance traditions.  They involve the comparative study of both classic and cutting-edge developments in the Romance languages and their cultures. They are by definition multilingual and interdisciplinary in scope, in light of the power of geography and history to shape cultural production.

RLL concentrators gain great communication skills and cultural competence in the Romance languages. The concentration prepares students for a broad array of immediate career options, and for advanced study in the humanities, social sciences, law, and medicine. RLL means real life learning: our concentrators carry the theoretical and practical tools for interpretation learned in our classrooms into their work as teachers, public health providers, lawyers, physicians, legislators, diplomats, bankers, entrepreneurs and global citizens.