Portuguese and Scottish Literature

Portuguese and Scottish Literature is an unusual combination that brings together one of the world's great global languages with one of Britain's richest and most distinctive national literary traditions. Portuguese, spoken by over 200 million people across Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, and other countries, carries a literary heritage that includes the medieval lyric tradition, the epic poetry of Camoes, and the extraordinary twentieth-century fiction emerging from both the European and Brazilian contexts. Scottish literature, written in Scots, Gaelic, and English, encompasses medieval poets, the Enlightenment, Burns and Scott, the twentieth-century renaissance associated with Hugh MacDiarmid, and a thriving contemporary scene.

The University of Edinburgh is ideally placed for this combination, with active research in both Portuguese and Brazilian studies and one of the UK's strongest departments for Scottish literature. The four-year full-time programme develops your Portuguese language proficiency to an advanced level, taking you through grammar, translation, spoken communication, and reading of literary and non-literary texts, while engaging with the cultural and historical contexts of Lusophone societies. Alongside this, your Scottish literature studies will develop close reading skills across different periods and traditions, including texts in Scots and Gaelic alongside English, situating them within the rich and complex history of a small nation with an outsized cultural impact.

The contrast between these two literary worlds, one truly global, one intensely local, makes the combination intellectually distinctive and enriching.

A typical entry tariff of 168 points reflects Edinburgh's academic expectations.

Graduates pursue careers in translation, publishing, cultural organisations, broadcasting, education, journalism, international organisations with Lusophone connections, Scottish cultural institutions, and academic research in literary studies or languages. Postgraduate routes include Portuguese and Brazilian studies, Scottish literature, and translation studies.