Comparative Literature and Culture

Comparative literature and culture is a discipline that reads across national and linguistic boundaries, asking what texts and cultural objects from different traditions share and how they differ. Rather than focusing on the literature of a single nation or language, it sets works in dialogue with each other, using comparison as a method of analysis that reveals things about both texts that would be invisible if each were read in isolation. It is a field that is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on literary theory, cultural history, translation studies, linguistics, and philosophy, and it develops a particularly wide and flexible intellectual toolkit.

At Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, part of the University of London, this three-year full-time programme gives you the opportunity to explore the similarities and differences between literatures and cultures across different languages, places, and historical periods. The programme includes a sandwich placement year, a year abroad, and work placement opportunities, making it particularly rich in terms of the professional and international experience available alongside the core curriculum. The year abroad adds direct cultural immersion in another country and language, and the placement year and work placements connect your studies to professional contexts in the arts, publishing, education, or media.

You will engage with texts in English and in additional languages, develop your skills in literary analysis and cultural criticism, and explore the theoretical frameworks that comparative literature uses to read across difference.

You will develop skills in close reading, comparative analysis, research, and the written communication of complex cultural and textual interpretation.

Graduates from comparative literature and culture programmes pursue careers in publishing, journalism, translation, education, arts administration, the cultural sector, and international organisations. The cross-cultural analytical skills developed are valued wherever the ability to think across linguistic and national difference matters. Postgraduate study in comparative literature, translation, cultural studies, or modern languages is a natural next step.