This seminar aims to develop and deepen knowledge of the Ph.D. students in comparative literature. It broadens their cultural horizons by comparing their own literature and those of other nations. It enables them to compare their own thoughts to those of others, and that of their society with those of other foreign societies, such as customs, traditions, tastes and arts that are peculiar to each of them. It raises global issues in the field of the literary world, presents the characteristics of the different schools of comparative literature, and studies the links connecting literary subjects to those of other humanities disciplines, as well as the corresponding manifestations of these same subjects in other literatures.

This seminar will focus on certain problems in linguistics and terminology issues which enable a fresh look at a number of key concepts used in linguistics, such as those of sign, categorization, concept, competence, denotation, and connotation. Particular emphasis will be placed on the interest that there may be to analyze, in a terminological framework, metaphors and figures of speech. This doctoral seminar proposes supervised student activities on research projects identified on an individual or small group basis.

This seminar aims to give graduate students the means to acquire methodological skills essential to the development of their thesis, according to internationally accepted standards. It aims to help them respond quickly to questions they pose relative to the choice of topic, the organization of their work, using information available to them, in the writing of the thesis, and running the defense.