Comparative Literature and Culture and Drama

Comparative literature invites you to read widely across national traditions, languages, and historical periods, asking what we can understand about human experience and artistic expression when we refuse to stay within the boundaries of a single cultural tradition. Drama and theatre studies bring a different but related set of questions, examining how performance works as an art form, how it communicates, and how theatre has functioned as a social and political institution across history. Studied together, they develop both the scholarly tools of literary and cultural analysis and the awareness of embodied, live performance that theatre scholarship demands.

At Royal Holloway, this joint honours degree runs over three years full-time and offers a genuinely broad education in literature, culture, and drama. You will explore texts and performances from across the world, developing skills in close reading, critical argument, and cultural interpretation. You can also engage with film and visual art as part of your literary and cultural study, widening the range of media you analyse.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement component, giving you professional and international experience alongside your academic education. Royal Holloway has strong traditions in both comparative literature and drama, and its location close to London gives students access to a world-leading cultural and theatrical scene.

Graduates develop analytical, written, and communicative skills that are valued across the creative industries, journalism, publishing, broadcasting, education, arts administration, and the cultural sector more broadly. Many also go on to postgraduate study in literature, drama, cultural studies, or creative writing, while others move directly into careers in the arts, media, or public sector.