English Literature/Scottish Literature

English literature and Scottish literature together form a joint degree that takes full advantage of one of the richest literary cultures in the world and one that is too often underrepresented in English departments that take a British or global view without attending sufficiently to the distinctiveness of the Scottish tradition. Scottish literature runs from the medieval makars through the Reformation and the Enlightenment, through Burns, Hogg, Stevenson and MacDiarmid, to a contemporary scene of extraordinary vitality in fiction, poetry and drama. Studying it alongside the broader English literary tradition allows you to see how Scottish writing has been shaped by and has departed from that tradition, and how questions of language, identity and cultural politics run through literary history in ways that Scotland makes particularly vivid.

At the University of Glasgow this four-year full-time programme benefits from Glasgow's exceptional strength in both fields and includes a year abroad. Glasgow's description of the English literature strand captures the breadth of the offering: you will explore all aspects of literature in English from early modern to postmodern, with expertise available in American, Irish and postcolonial literatures, critical theory, creative writing, and the relationship between literature and other arts, media and science. The Scottish literature strand complements this with deep specialist knowledge of the distinct languages, forms and cultural contexts of writing from Scotland, including work in Scots and Scottish Gaelic as well as English.

You will develop close reading, critical argument and research skills across a wide range of literary forms and periods, and the joint nature of the degree encourages comparative thinking about how literary traditions relate to one another.

Graduates pursue careers in publishing, journalism, education, the civil service, broadcasting, arts management and cultural policy. Many go on to postgraduate study in literary studies, creative writing or Scottish studies, and some develop careers as writers or literary scholars.