Comparative Literature/Classics

Comparative literature and classics is a programme that places literary reading and the study of the ancient world at its centre, creating a rich intellectual space where texts from across cultures and historical periods can be read in relation to each other. Comparative literature examines writing across national, linguistic, cultural, and generic boundaries, asking what happens when texts from different traditions are read together and what insights emerge from comparison that single-tradition study cannot produce. Classics deepens that comparative perspective with the foundational texts and civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome, which have shaped the literary traditions of much of the Western world and beyond.

This four-year, full-time programme at the University of Glasgow leads to a Master of Arts with Honours and includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study in another country and to encounter literary traditions in a different academic and cultural setting. You will be able to engage with Latin and Greek at whatever level your background allows, and the comparative literature strand opens the possibility of studying texts in multiple European or other languages. The combination is particularly suited to students who are drawn to the big questions of literary culture, the relationship between ancient and modern, the way stories travel across cultures, and the formal dimensions of how literature is made.

Graduates pursue careers in academia, publishing, translation, education, journalism, arts administration, and the cultural sector. The combination of linguistic flexibility, textual rigour, and comparative perspective is valued wherever close engagement with complex texts is central to the work. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in comparative literature, classical studies, or literary translation, and the programme provides a strong foundation for doctoral research.

Further study in linguistics, cultural studies, or translation is also a natural extension for those interested in the movement of texts across languages and traditions.