BA Comparative Literatures and Cultures (Q200)
2026 entry | view 2025 entry
Course summary
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? If so, you are a comparatist in the making!
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 globalised world. The programme challenges narrow 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 across the globe – from Italy to Russia, Morocco to China, Brazil to Senegal – 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).
This degree considers the many ways in which Literatures and Cultures move through time and space, such as through individual forms of contact (reader reception, influence, and intertextuality), sociopolitics (trade, migration, colonization) and technologies that have shaped literary and visual culture.
All texts are studied in English through the tool of the curious comparatist: translation. You will benefit from the Translation Studies expertise in the School of Modern Languages as you discover the varieties and varied roles of translations in the movement, adaptation, and appropriation of texts.
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 all kinds of employers: intercultural understanding and sensitivity, analytical and critical thinking, clarity, 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.
Course structure
In years one and two, core units introduce you to the practices and debates of comparative literature and the study of visual cultures (e.g. photography, street art and film). These units also show how insights and methods drawn from postcolonialism and decolonization, translation studies, multiculturalism, and multilingualism can throw new light on the comparative study of Literatures and Cultures.
All year three students do an independent research project. You will produce an extended essay on a comparative topic of your choice and supplement it with a knowledge-dissemination project that allows you to think creatively about how to communicate your research to non-specialists. You might, for example, create a radio programme pitch or an exhibition catalogue.
In all years, you will choose optional units based on the culture of a single language or a combination of cultures, or from other departments in Arts (e.g. Classics, Art History, English or Theology). While language study is not required for our Single Honours degree, both European and non-European language units are on offer. Summer Study Abroad schemes may also be available. For information, see the Centre for Study Abroad.
The cutting-edge research interests and methods of our dedicated and dynamic staff inform our teaching, which takes place through lectures, seminars, workshops, and one-to-one project supervision. Single Honours students also benefit from small-group tutorials. Assessments combine rigour and creativity and may include presentations, essays, exams, collaborative projects, debates and video essays.
Entry requirements
We accept a wide variety of qualifications and welcome applications from students of all backgrounds. Below is a guide to the typical offers for this course.
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Selection process
- Regulations and codes of conduct we abide by to create a positive environment for learning and achievement are found in the University admissions policies and procedures.
- If applying with extenuating circumstances please see our policy.
- Full information about our selection processes for Comparative Literatures and Cultures can be found in the Admissions Statement:
Admissions statement - The admissions statement above relates to 2025 entry. The statement for 2026 entry will be available in summer 2025.