Italian and Portuguese

Italian and Portuguese brings together two of the great Romance languages, each the vehicle of a literary and cultural tradition of extraordinary richness and global reach. Italian is the language of one of the most culturally influential nations in European history, the language of Dante, Leonardo, Verdi, and Fellini, and the key to an artistic, architectural, and intellectual heritage that has shaped the Western imagination for centuries. Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, the language of Brazil, Portugal, and a family of nations across Africa and Asia, connecting some of the most dynamic and diverse cultures and economies of the twenty-first century.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year programme combines intensive study of both languages with serious engagement with the literary, cultural, and intellectual traditions they represent. You will work on Italian and Portuguese at an advanced level throughout the degree, developing reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in both languages and engaging with literary and non-literary texts in their original forms. The programme spans classical and contemporary Italian literature alongside the remarkable traditions of Portuguese and Brazilian writing, and it situates both within their historical and cultural contexts.

Oxford's tutorial system provides exceptionally close intellectual attention to your development as a reader, thinker, and linguist throughout the programme.

Graduates with Italian and Portuguese from Oxford are very well placed for careers in diplomacy, the foreign service, translation and interpreting, international business, journalism, cultural institutions, academic research, and international law. The combination opens professional doors in two very different parts of the world, one anchored in Mediterranean Europe and the other spanning the Lusophone global community of Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa. Further postgraduate study in Italian studies, Lusophone studies, comparative literature, or translation is also a natural route for graduates who wish to deepen their expertise.