English Literature and History

English literature and history is a combination that rewards students who are drawn to both the imaginative and the analytical dimensions of the humanities. English literature develops your ability to read texts with precision and depth, attending to language, form, and the ways in which literary works make meaning. History develops your ability to interpret evidence, construct arguments about causation and change, and situate events and ideas in their social, political, and cultural contexts.

The two disciplines are deeply complementary: literary texts are historical documents as well as aesthetic objects, and historical understanding enriches and deepens literary reading. Many of the most interesting questions about the past are best approached through both at once.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year programme includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study in a different academic and cultural environment and to encounter ways of reading both literature and history that differ from those you have developed at Edinburgh. The programme draws on the university's strong research traditions in both English literature and history, covering literature from the medieval period to the present and history with particular strengths in Scottish, British, and European contexts. Throughout the degree, you will develop skills in close reading, source analysis, argumentation, and academic writing, and you will engage with the major critical and historical debates that have shaped both disciplines.

Edinburgh is an outstanding place to pursue this combination, with exceptional library resources, a rich literary and historical heritage in the city and country itself, and a scholarly community that takes seriously the relationship between literary and historical enquiry.

Graduates work in education, journalism, publishing, heritage, the civil service, the law, and arts administration. Many continue to postgraduate study in English, history, or related disciplines, and the combination of close analytical skills and broad humanistic knowledge is valued across a very wide range of professional contexts.