This Comparative Literature MA covers literature in 10 languages , produced across five different continents and spanning over 2,500 years. This means youll study and compare literatures and media from different cultures across the world, from antiquity to the present day. Youll be taught by world-leading academics with expertise in literature from Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, South Asia and China, Africa, and beyond. All modules are taught with English translations, and youll also be able to develop your language skills to read literature in its original language. This comparative literature masters offers a wide range of optional modules, allowing you to research topics such as 18th-century novels, modern world novels, and the links between literature and culture or other art forms .

Key benefits

• Revel in the freedom to pursue your literary and cultural interests with a list of modules offering a unique combination of geographical range and historical depth.
• Enhance your cross-cultural readings on topical issues thanks to a thematic approach to teaching.
• Learn from world-leading academics with expertise in European, Chinese, African and world literatures.
• Choose to specialise with optional modules from across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, including learning a language at the Kings Language Centre.
• Enjoy our location in the heart of London, with numerous libraries and cultural institutions nearby.
• Study an internationally respected MA that offers excellent research skills training and a springboard to further study.

This comparative literature masters will teach you how to analyse and evaluate theories at the forefront of current literary scholarship. Youll discover how to deploy these yourself and develop the skills to conduct research and communicate your findings at a postgraduate level. Your MA in comparative literature has two required modules and a compulsory dissertation. Youll start by looking at contemporary debates in the field of theorising literature across cultures. This required module focuses on an overarching theme and will be taught each week by a different specialist from the comparative literature programme. The structure not only facilitates your cross-cultural reading on a topical issue but also introduces other ways of working comparatively. Youll investigate how we read literature across cultures, geographies, languages, and time. Once youre familiar with the contemporary debates and variety of perspectives within this field, youll learn how to analyse and evaluate each theory and then deploy them effectively. The other required module runs for the duration of your course and will equip you with the research skills youll need to conduct your dissertation at the end of your comparative literature masters. It provides a solid foundation for your independent research and prepares you to write a literature review and give an oral presentation of your project before drafting your dissertation. The rest of your MA is built from optional modules. At least half of these come from the comparative literature syllabus, which offers a wide range of options. For example, you could explore the world novel and consider what it means to read in translation, how we read differently outside the national canon, how we write for a world audience, cultures of human rights, and more. You may opt to explore queer connections and male-male desire in the classical past or think about the significance and processes of translation in colonial and postcolonial India. You could also learn how to analyse and critically comment on how literature informed by the history of slavery and its legacy uses mythological tropes from Greece, Africa and the Americas, for example. Its also possible to choose from a broader list of optional modules within the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.