Comparative Literature and Mediaeval History

Comparative literature and mediaeval history form a combination with deep intellectual roots and a particular coherence that becomes apparent when you begin to study each seriously. Comparative literature opens literary study across the boundaries of culture and language, reading texts from many traditions in relation to each other rather than treating national literatures as self-contained. Mediaeval history brings the long perspective of a period stretching from late antiquity to the early Renaissance, a time of extraordinary cultural production in which the literary traditions of classical antiquity were transmitted, transformed, and combined with new religious, vernacular, and philosophical movements to produce the foundations of European and world culture.

At St Andrews this four-year full-time programme offers you the chance to read texts of any genre and period, written in a multitude of languages and available in English translation, alongside historical study of the medieval world across its full cultural and geographical extent. Comparative literature draws on expertise from across the School of Modern Languages and beyond, pushing at the boundaries of textual analysis in ways that a single-language or single-period literary degree cannot do. Mediaeval history develops your skills in evaluating historical evidence, constructing arguments, and understanding the connections between political history, cultural production, and the ideas that shaped the medieval mind.

The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to engage with both disciplines in a different educational environment.

Graduates move into careers in academia, publishing, heritage, education, arts administration, and research, as well as a wide range of other roles where the analytical and cultural skills of the literary scholar and historian are valued. Many continue to postgraduate study in comparative literature, medieval history, or related fields.