Comparative Literatures and Cultures and Modern Languages

Do you enjoy the adventurous and analytical work of interpreting texts? Are you keen to explore literatures and cultures in an unbordered way, so that national boundaries, disciplinary divisions and linguistic know-how are no barrier to where your curiosity and intellectual ambition might lead?

Our BA Comparative Literatures and Cultures and Modern Languages degree offers an unmatched opportunity to study international cultural production in both depth and breadth, while also studying French, German, Italian, Portuguese (beginners only), Russian or Spanish.

Comparative Literatures and Cultures takes you on a journey across and between cultures that will sharpen your analytical skills and equip you with a cultural agility fit for our globalized world. The programme challenges ideas of capital-L Literature or of ‘the canon’ and knocks down false boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture by exploring the diversity of literary and cultural production both across the globe and across the centuries. Through both core and optional units, our comparatists examine the long and fascinating history of interactions between literary works and other forms (portraiture, book illustration, film), media (video, digital literature) and disciplines (visual arts, philosophy, history, social sciences).

On the language side of your degree, you will follow a structured language course in your chosen language. You will also take a range of core and optional units that focus on topics such as the literature, history, cinema, religion, politics and visual art of culture(s) where your chosen language is spoken. Your third year is spent abroad, extending your language skills and cultural knowledge. To find out more, visit the Centre for Study Abroad.

Bristol's multilingualism and cultural diversity make it the ideal location for this degree. The city offers countless opportunities for you to take your cultural analyses from the seminar into the ‘real world’, be this through encounters with Banksy’s street art, with murals honouring the Bristol Bus Boycott's fight for racial equality or through work on how Bristol’s institutions have responded to decolonization.

The degree fosters qualities valued by employers: intercultural understanding, analytical and critical thinking, self-confidence and daring in communication, an aptitude for collaborative work, and creativity. It will instil habits of curiosity, openness, rigour, self-reflection, and evidence-based thinking, which will prepare you for a flexible career across a wide range of sectors.