Scottish Literature and Scottish History

Scottish Literature and Scottish History is a combination that gives you a distinctive and coherent perspective on one of the most culturally rich and historically complex of the world's smaller nations. Scotland has produced an extraordinary body of literature, from the medieval makars and the ballad tradition through Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson to the remarkable twentieth-century renaissance in Scottish writing and the vibrant contemporary scene. Scottish history, spanning Gaelic kingdoms and Viking settlements through the wars of independence, the Reformation, the Union, the Enlightenment, industrialisation, and the rise of devolution, provides the context within which that literature grew and to which it has always been in conversation.

The University of Edinburgh is the natural home for this combination, situated in a city where the literary and historical past is physically present on every street and in institutions that include the National Library of Scotland and the National Records of Scotland. The four-year full-time programme develops rigorous skills in both literary analysis and historical research. In literature you will read Scottish texts across multiple centuries and languages, including Scots, Gaelic, and English, developing the ability to interpret them closely within their cultural contexts.

In history you will work with primary sources, learn to construct historical arguments from evidence, and engage with the major interpretive debates about Scotland's past. The programme includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study in a different academic environment and bring an international perspective to Scottish studies.

A typical entry tariff of 168 points reflects the academic expectations at Edinburgh.

Graduates pursue careers in heritage, archives, museums, publishing, journalism, broadcasting, education, creative writing, cultural organisations, and academic research in Scottish studies, literary history, or history. Postgraduate routes include Scottish literature, Scottish history, cultural policy, and archive management.