Comparative Literature and International Relations

Comparative literature and international relations at the University of St Andrews is a four-year combination that connects literary study with one of the most analytically demanding social sciences, creating a programme that addresses how stories and politics together construct the world we inhabit. Comparative literature opens literary study across the boundaries of national canons and individual languages, reading texts of any genre and period from cultures around the world, in English translation, and asking what the relationships between those literatures reveal about human experience, power, and imagination. International relations examines how states, organisations, and other actors behave in the world, exploring the dynamics of war and peace, cooperation and conflict, and the governance of global challenges.

The programme includes a year abroad.

You will develop skills in close reading, critical analysis, and cross-cultural interpretation through the comparative literature strand, while building the analytical and theoretical tools of international relations to understand political power, diplomacy, and global governance. The combination is particularly illuminating for questions about how narrative shapes political reality, how literature engages with war, empire, identity, and justice, and how the cultural imagination of different societies reflects and influences their political behaviour.

Graduates from comparative literature and international relations are well placed for careers in journalism and international media, the diplomatic service, international organisations, cultural policy, think tanks, academia, publishing, education, and the charitable sector. Many continue to postgraduate research in comparative literature, international relations, cultural studies, or area studies.