BA (Hons) Comparative Literature

Our modules in Comparative Literature cover literature from the classics to the modern age. We investigate literary movements, genres and themes. We offer modules on Classical Literature, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism and Postmodernism. Genres studied include the novel, the short story, science fiction, tragedy and the epic, with a particular emphasis on how literary forms have evolved in different cultures, and linguistic traditions. For example, what makes a tragedy by Sophocles so different from one written by Shakespeare? How has the genre of science fiction developed across Europe? What are the similarities and differences between a novel by Charlotte Brontë and one by Gustave Flaubert? Themes explored in our modules include freedom and oppression, film adaptations of literary works, gender and sexuality, travel, the body, childhood and adolescence, and vampires in literature and film. You do not need to be able to read a foreign language to take Comparative Literature.