Course summary

Expand your literary and cultural horizons while also exploring language in all its aspects. Comparative literature makes comparisons and connections between literatures and cultures. You’ll study a range of genres, time periods, and national literatures, as well as cross-cutting themes. Linguistics complements the study of literature, focusing on how language works and how we communicate. You’ll develop systematic ways of looking at examples as diverse as youth language in our multilingual cities, or the English used in the media and politics. You’ll consider how new technologies shape the form of English and whether the spread of English is changing or even killing other languages. In your first year, you’ll take modules introducing you to various aspects of linguistic and literary theory. The exciting range of optional modules in your second and third years means you can tailor your studies to concentrate on the areas of literature and linguistics that interest you most.