Comparative Literature and Culture and Gaelic

Comparative literature and culture and Gaelic is an unusual combination that connects global literary study with one of Scotland's most distinctive and historically significant indigenous languages. Comparative literature and culture examines texts and cultural forms across national borders, languages, genres, and historical periods, asking what different traditions share and how ideas, forms, and meanings travel across the boundaries that usually separate them. Gaelic, as a living language with a literary tradition spanning more than a thousand years of poetry, narrative, song, and oral culture, is both a subject of scholarly study and a window into a cultural world that has shaped Scotland's history and identity in profound ways.

At the University of Aberdeen you will study this four-year programme, developing your ability to engage with world literature from a comparative and culturally informed perspective alongside your Gaelic language and literature studies. You will gain a global outlook through engagement with literatures from across the world, including non-English-language traditions, while also developing a deep understanding of one of the UK's most endangered but vigorously supported indigenous languages and the culture it carries. The programme includes a year abroad, extending your literary and cultural engagement in an international context.

Graduates of this combination are well placed for careers in Gaelic education and the Gaelic media sector, which has grown significantly with the establishment of BBC Alba and the expansion of Gaelic-medium education. Broader careers in arts administration, cultural heritage, literary translation, journalism, publishing, and education are also accessible, and the comparative literature and culture component opens doors in any context where cross-cultural literary and critical expertise is valued. Postgraduate study in Gaelic studies, Celtic languages, comparative literature, translation, or cultural heritage is a natural extension for those who wish to develop specialist expertise or contribute to the preservation and development of Gaelic language and culture.